~Sam's P.O.V.~
I awoke hearing someone yelling my name from a distance. It sounded like Dean. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but white. I walked towards the voice, but the more distance I covered the more the voice faded. I tried going in different directions, but every step I took led me away from that familiar voice that was calling me.
"Is there anybody there?" I called as loud as I could but my voice seemed to be drowned in the white nothingness. "Hello? Somebody?" My cries were in vain, I didn't know where I was but I did know there had to be nothing here for me. I tried recalling my memories so maybe I could remember a clue about how I got here and what this place is but every time the memories surfaced they faded instantly.
I was alone, and defeated, so I sat there listening to the still lingering voice almost inaudible now. My head met my hands and I curled up in space.
I closes my eyes and tried to clear my head, soon the white light that threatened to pierce my closed eyes disappeared, and the voice cut out completely. I looked around. The whiteness was quickly evaporating. Not disappearing but not changing either, the only word I had to describe it was evaporating. The white was water and the black was a hot stove causing steam to rise up in the form of gray colors.
I could do nothing as I watched the world around me, this whatever, wherever I am evaporate. When the smoke cleared I opened my eyes to harsh sunlight of a rising sun.
"Sam!" Dean's gruff voice yelled at me. "Sam you alive?" He called and I sat up with a start.
"Dean?"
"Yeah, take it easy buddy."
"What happened?"
"Uh, I think we died...again." He motioned his head towards the dug up grave behind me and the patch of upturned dirt beside it.
"Did you crawl out of your grave?"
"Not the first time." He replied and sat up trying to get a sense of where we were. I looked around too. We were somewhere a few miles away from a highway, I could hear the car's driving in the distance. We were surrounded by trees, most of them looked dead. I had to wonder how we died.
"Where the hell are we?" I stood up and asked.
"I don't know." I looked around some more and noticed two more patches of dirt beside ours.
"Dean." I called him back, he was beside me in an instant. I showed him the other graves, slightly farther away from ours, but just enough dirt was turned up to let us know it was indeed a grave.
"Laura and Jess's?" He sounded unsure.
"What happened to us?"
Dean didn't reply, instead began digging up the graves with his already dirt stained hands. I bent down beside him and got my hands dirty.
When the graves were finally dug up we found bundles of blankets in each grave, but when we pushed aside the cloth there was nothing there. What would have been Jess and Laura's bodies were just ratty old blankets.
"Someone took their bodies?" I said quizzically.
"No, something. Someone would have left the grave undug. This is bigger than us, Sammy. We gotta get back to Bobby." I agreed and followed Dean out of the woods onto the highway.
There weren't many cars on the highway, but the ones that were driving ignored us. The sun was high in the sky by the time we finally caught a ride from a questionable guy in a family sedan. The man asked us if we needed a ride, Dean got in the passenger side and I sat behind him.
"Where you gentlemen headed?"
"Sioux Falls, South Dakota." Dean told him and the man tore away from the curb.
A few minutes into the car ride and the man began asking about us. "Rough night?"
"What?" I asked.
"Well, no offense, sonny, but you both look like crap."
"Yeah, rough night is an understatement." Dean answered still looking out the window.
"Well it'll get better from here on in." Dean and I shared a skeptical look as we waited for the man to explain. "Think of how happy the boss will be when I bring her the Winchesters." I saw the demon flash black eyes from the rearview mirror.
Dean acted fast though, in an instant he stabbed the demon with the demon knife and took control of the wheel. He shut the engine off and let the car roll to a stop on the side of the highway. When the car came to a stop I spoke up.
"Good to know we're still wanted in the demon world."
"Just another day as a hunter. You should be used to it by now, Sammy." He said as he got out of the car. He threw the demons body on the grass, got in the driver's seat and started the car again. I climbed in the passenger seat and looked out the window, silent for the rest of the ride.
~Dean's P.O.V.~
We arrived to Bobby's junkyard and pulled up to the house, or where the house should be. I slowly pulled to a stop and got out of the car. What Sam and I saw wasn't what we expected to see. The house we called home for so many years was burnt down to nothing.
A million thoughts raced through my mind. "Bobby!" I called instinctively running up to the house. "Bobby! Mercedes!" I called desperately shifting through the rubble. It was useless though, the charred wood was wet and dry, the house had burned down a long time ago.
"Dean!" Sam grabbed my shoulder and tried to yank me back from the rubble. "They're not here!"
"Then where the hell are they?" I demanded bringing my anger onto Sam without meaning to.
"I don't know." Sam replied looking hurt and confused.
This was terrible, I didn't know where Bobby, Mercedes Jess or even Laura were. The house we lived in burnt to a crisp. Not only that, Sam and I just came back from the dead...again and we had no idea how.
"SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled to the sky. I wasn't expecting a response, but I got one. Growling and barking came rushing towards us, when I turned around I saw Sam fall to the ground wrestling with a large black dog.
Sam yelled at the creature and tried to fend it off, but it was too strong. I came at the creature with a knife although it must have seen me as it jumped off Sam and rounded on me. It's lips were curled back into a vicious snarl, I was ready to kill it when I saw bright blue eyes.
"Shilo?" Sam got up and questioned the dog. It replied with a mean bark. "Whoa, calm down. We're not demons!"
I put the knife down and took out the holy water, "Look, see. Not demons." I said splashing it over both of us. Shilo seemed to relax but her fur was still on end.
"Shilo," Sam began gently. "What the hell happened?" She seemed reluctant to do so but she transformed back into Mercedes and talked to us.
"12 years…" She said, her face to the ground. "12 fucking years!"
"What?" Sam and I asked at the same time.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU TWO BEEN!?" She looked up at us yelling her lungs off. Her eyes were red and fragile but it was obvious she was trying to hide it and look strong. "We looked for you everywhere. No demon we talked to knew where you were. And where the hell are Laura and Jess?" Suddenly Mercedes fell silent and she brought out a silver knife. "You're shifters." She said accusingly.
Sam and I didn't have time to let her know we weren't as she came charging at us with the knife. She slashed a gash up and down our arms. When our flesh didn't burn she looked at us, confused.
"Mercedes! Calm down we're not shifters or demons. We're just...us" Sam explained holding his bleeding arm. Mercedes opened and close her mouth, I could see her mind thinking but nothing came out.
"I think," I began breaking the silence. "we need a place to talk."
~Laura's P.O.V.~
I was walking aimlessly around in a pit of nothingness. Looking for someone, anyone. There was nothing around me, nothing for me to walk towards and nothing for me to strive for. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of coming back to Jess, Dean and Sam. As I walked I thought about Mercedes and Bobby, I wonder how they're doing? The thoughts of being with family again were all I needed to keep pushing forward. Though I didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Not that I'd be able to tell anyway because everything was pitch black.
I just kept walking around until I felt a hand on my shoulder pulling me towards a faint red light. As I got closer the light became more blinding to me. I finally had to close my eyes as I went through the light.
Immediately blood-red light filled my vision, a voice came through the static of my mind.
"Hello, love. Finally came back to us, eh?" I slowly opened my eyes to see Crowley standing next to me.
"What the hell?"
"Precisely." Crowley answered. I picked myself up off the ground, turning to Crowley I said.
I looked around and immediately knew where we were. "We're in hell, it looks different what happened?"
"Twelve years of undeserving torture to my beautiful home." I looked at Crowley in confusion. "After you kicked the bucket your lovely daughter took the throne, but Abaddon's still a problem."
"What the hell did that bitch do to my daughter!?"
"See for yourself, love." Crowley said as he took me to a place where we could watch the throne room of hell from the shadows. Sure enough my baby Amarianna was on the throne while Abaddon whispered in her ear. Some lesser demon was on his knees pleading. It sounded pitiful to me, but Amarianna seemed to be persuaded by whatever my wretch of a mother was telling her as her expression changed.
"Fine then. I'll let you live." She said to the demon from what I could tell was begging to be killed. She smiled when the demon's eyes widened. Abaddon's wicked grin set my insides on fire. I was seething with rage, How dare that bitch corrupt my throne! I started to walk down to take back control of my kingdom, but Crowley pulled me back.
"What are you doing?" I rounded on him at once.
"If you confront her now you're walking straight into a death trap. Not to mention you'll put my life in danger. I've spent enough time under Abaddon's thumb but we have to play this right. If you want your throne back come with me." I was still angry that Abaddon had the gall to corrupt my child and my kingdom which I'd worked so hard to build up. I took one last look at my baby and the throne room. A vampire had walked in and was walking with Abaddon, Aria had a sour look on her face, it was clear they didn't get along. There was something about that vampire that seemed familiar. I dismissed it as I let Crowley lead me out of hell.
~Jess's P.O.V.~
Sam wrapped me in his arms for a long needed hug. It felt so good to feel his arms around me again. I may not have remembered what it was to be in the void but I did know that it felt like I'd been gone for years. Which I was, after Cas pulled me back into heaven he filled me in on everything that happened in the twelve years Laura, Dean, Sam, and I were gone.
My eyes wandered to Dean while Sam held me. His face looked sunken and he stared at the ground forlornly. I let go of Sam and moved to Dean, he looked up surprised as I wrapped my arms around his neck. I had to stand on my tip toes to reach it, with Sam he just picked me up off the ground. Dean returned the hug gratefully. I then hugged Mercedes who looked worse off than Dean or Sam did. It made me wonder what those twelve years we were all gone did to her.
I saw Sam holding back tears as he looked at me. He took my hands in his as he questioned me. "What happened? Why weren't you brought back where we were?"
"It's a long story." I told him. Although Bobby's house was burnt down we still found a few tree stumps to sit on while I told them what Cas told me. "Apparently my body was taken by Ithamar."
"Laura's dickbag of a father?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. After we died Ithamar broke out of his prison cell and started a civil war in heaven. Gabriel and Cas gathered all the angels that were loyal to me and tried to hold down the fort but Ithamar has support from Abaddon. When Laura died there was no one to rule hell either. Because of that all the souls that died within those twelve years were cast into the void. Thats where we were. Cas looked for all of us for twelve years, but searching the void for four individual souls is hard enough without the threat of war hanging over your head."
"So where is Laura-?" Mercedes began but was cut off by intense yelling of profanity.
"THAT MOTHER-...BITCH….HOW DARE SHE-" Laura went on and on yelling incoherent things. Something about hell and her daughter. All of us visibly jumped when she came out of nowhere. Crowley was standing beside her giving that look a teacher has perfected when waiting for the class to quiet down. Sam, Dean and Mercedes stood up immediately surprise written plain as day on their faces. I knew I'd see Laura soon enough and seeing her now was like seeing the fires of hell rage out of a ten-mile high volcano. It was best to let her cool down, so I waited with Crowley while the others nearly exploded from anticipation.
Laura's rant went on a while longer until Dean finally reached out to take her hand. Laura stopped immediately, ripped her hand away and reeled back to punch Dean square in the jaw. The force of the hit must have been a lot as Dean fell to the ground clutching his mouth.
Laura looked at him, then up at Sam, Mercedes, and I then finally realized where she was. Her face turned from rage to surprise and guilt in a split second. Dean gasped and moaned on the ground. "Great to see you too, babe." He said sarcastically.
"I'm so sorry!" Laura exclaimed. "I didn't realize it was you." She looked around at her surroundings and noticed the pile of burnt ash and wood. Laura slowly made her way over to the edge of the pile. "W-what happened? Where's Bobby? Mercedes?! What the hell happened?!" Laura was on the edge of panic and seething rage I decided to step in before she could explode.
"Babe, it's okay. Calm down, We'll explain everything." I told her, after we had our reunions and filled Laura in on the twelve years we were gone a question formed in my mind.
"You know, where is Bobby?" I turned to Mercedes who's head hung in shame or guilt I couldn't tell.
She sniffed. "It's been a long time but when the house burnt down...he-" She stopped short there was no need to go any further by the look on her face. "And Amarianna….I tried." Mercedes couldn't go on any longer she put her head in her hands and cried as the rest of us sat in stunned silence. I looked at the burnt down ruins of a life long passed.
Bobby burnt with the house….theres not even anything of his to bury…The burning sensation started in my nose that told the onslaught of tears, my vision blurred and I could do nothing but sit there stunned. It must have been the first time Sam or Dean heard this news because they exploded with rage. Some of it angered towards Mercedes but most of it for demons. Mercedes had to explain that it wasn't demons but Laura's daughter.
"WHAT!? Aria did this!?" She shouted pointing to the house.
"Even if I could have gotten him out of the house he wouldn't have lived...Her demons, they took over her...she stabbed him while he slept. I didn't even wake up until I heard her scream."
My mouth dropped and my breath quickened. What a sight that must have been for Mercedes...I couldn't imagine how much it had traumatized her. I was about to ask Mercedes where Aria is now when an old Camaro drove up the driveway.
The driver was out of the car the instant it stopped. Mercedes stood up and walked over to the driver. He wiped a hand through his dirty blonde hair and seemed relieved to see Mercedes. They hugged then talked for a while, then the talking grew louder. With every word the man seemed to be getting more angry. Sam and Dean looked as if they weren't pleased to see the man. Suddenly it hit me, this was the kid that was pulled out of hell when Laura and I first came back from Heaven and Hell as supernatural beings. Sam and Dean had called him Adam.
Adam walked over to the house a worried Mercedes trailing behind. "You used to be a hunter with them!?" He didn't seem to address us as he turned to Mercedes. Mercedes just nodded.
"Wait a minute, you two know each other?" Dean questioned Mercedes mainly but Adam answered anyway.
"Actually we're married!" Adam said angrily. Laura and I shared surprised looks then in perfect sync ran to Mercedes and hugged her.
"Oh my gosh! You didn't tell us you were married! That's amazing!" I squealed in her ear.
Laura hugged her tight then turned to Adam, "You better be the best damn husband I've ever seen." She sort of growled lowly at him. Adam scowled then addressed the matter at hand.
"That isn't important. What is, is that you two never fucking get out of my life!" He yelled at Sam and Dean. Adam portrayed so much anger and resentment for them I was honestly scared.
"Adam, please." Mercedes begged, Adam stopped for only a moment to listen to her. "They're friends. I don't even understand why you're so upset? You've met them before?"
"Adam's our brother." Sam told her hesitantly.
"Half brother!" He hissed back. Then he turned to Mercedes's confused face. "Remember when I told you I was in hell."
"Yeah." She said. "You never told me why though."
"Well it's because of them." He jerked his head towards Sam and Dean who both shared a bitch face. "After Michael used me as his vessel Sam said yes to Lucifer and threw us both in the cage. Only they went back for Sam. I was left there to rot. I only escaped because of Laura."
"You're welcome." Laura bowed comically, no one laughed.
Mercedes turned to Sam and Dean fire in her eyes. "YOU LEFT HIM THERE!?" Sam and Dean immediately looked guilty. They tried to speak but Mercedes wouldn't let them. "Adam has nightmares every night because of you two! You both know full well how much torture hell is, Sam, you more than anyone, how could you leave your own brother!"
"Half brother." Adam corrected her more quietly now.
She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I thought you guys cared for family!?"
They both tried to say something but nothing would come out of their open mouths. Mercedes had never openly attacked them like that before. Frankly Mercedes could be scary! Her shifter teeth showed a little when she shouted adding the fear wolves put into their prey. Mercedes continued to stare down the boys while the rest of us were left in silence.
~Laura's P.O.V.~
I quickly grab Mercedes by the hand and zap away to a remote island beach in the middle of the ocean. She finally calmed down enough to realize where we were.
"How could they have left him in hell?" Mercedes sat down in the sand. I sat down next to her and looked at the water. "They're his family."
"I know, but it's been Sam and Dean for their whole lives, not Sam, Dean, and Adam. I don't think they're used to having another sibling yet. Especially, Dean."
"That doesn't make it okay." She was about to get angry again but Jess put her hand on her shoulder.
"It also doesn't change what happened. I'm sorry they left him in hell, and so are Sam and Dean. The one thing Sam and Dean both hate about themselves is how much they let other people down. I know because Dean told me, but you can't change the past."
There was an awkward silence in which I zapped us back to Jess, Sam, Dean and Adam. I stood back as Mercedes walked over to the boys and apologized for her earlier outbursts. She and Adam then turned and walked away together, I couldn't help but notice he put his arm around her as they talked. I made my way over next to Dean and he automatically placed his arm around my waist.
"What did you say to her?" Dean asked me.
"I basically told her that you both feel bad about leaving him in the cage and that you can't change the past." Dean looked forlorn and sighed.
"I would- I would do it all over again if I could."
"I know, babe." I patted Dean's head and took his hand. "Now, what are we going to do about my mother and our daughter?"
"What the hell happened to Aria?" Dean asked concerned and confused, instinctively reaching for the knife under his coat.
"Apparently she's running hell now." I said bitterly.
"She's what?" Jess came up with Sam.
Before I explained everything Crowley showed me to them though, Mercedes and Adam spoke to us again. Adam went first. "Hey, why don't we take you guys to our house. Seeing as Bobby's is burnt down." He looked uncomfortable but the look on Mercedes's face told me she was the one who forced him to invite us over.
"Also, demons are known to investigate this area now. I'd rather we all talked together somewhere safe." Mercedes added.
"I could kick their asses if needed. They took my baby."
"Seeing as we've apparently been gone for twelve years, we should go with Mercedes." Jess said to me with a thankful look from Mercedes.
"But… okay."
"Don't worry we'll find Aria and Elijah in time, I know it. Right now we need to know what the hell is going on before we start jumping to conclusions."
"I can't help it. I'm her mother. I need to protect her from that monster that has her."
"You mean Abaddon?" Jess asked and I nodded fire in my eyes. "What does she want with Aria?"
"Hell if I know but I'm going to kill that son of a bitch! I don't care if she is my mother."
"I know. I'm gonna freeze over hell if Elijah was hurt." Jess was seething I realized now, but she was holding back lest she start an earthquake. I agreed with her and we all piled into Adam and Mercedes's car.
~Jess's P.O.V.~
As it turns out Adam and Mercedes had been married for a few years, after Bobby was...well after he passed away. Mercedes tried to find Aria but it was all she could do just to escape from the burning building. Mercedes told the story of how she escaped while Adam drove.
"Aria locked me in Bobby's old room, the door was too hot to escape from but luckily there was a window, I transformed and crashed through the glass. I tried to look around for her but she was gone. With all the smoke I couldn't catch her scent, much less breathe. I got away with only my life. For a long time I roamed the streets again, Cas contacted me a few times only to bring news of what was happening in heaven. Then I met Adam." Mercedes, who was sitting in the front seat, took Adam's hand as he drove. They shared an intimate look. I was glad to see Mercedes finally found someone she obviously loved. At least those twelve years weren't all pain and agony. I concluded as Mercedes kept talking and broke me from my thoughts.
"Laura…" She spoke softly, I could tell from her voice that she was about to say something personal. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry that I couldn't take care of Aria like you'd want. And I'm sorry I wasn't there for Eli either. After you two died in the djinn nest we only found Aria...Eli had vanished…I'm sorry." She added after a long time of silence.
As much as I wanted to scream and yell at undeserving victims to tell me where my child was, I knew it would do no good. I bit my lip to hold in the bitter words that would escape otherwise. Sam grabbed my hand and squeezed. I didn't look at him but squeezed back.
I forced myself to look at Mercedes through the rearview mirror and smiled uncertainly. I didn't even convince myself with that smile, there was no way Mercedes bought it, but as she looked back she half smiled. I could only take that to mean understanding. Laura on the other hand was being unusually quiet. She sat beside Dean in the cramped back seat and hung her head. Her hair covered her face so I couldn't read her expression, but I knew she was seething with anger and impatience. I knew because that's the same way I felt, we both wanted to get out there and kill the bastards that kept our children from us. I sighed, there's no use rushing in like a fool. I need to gather information on what's happened since we've been gone.
The rest of the car ride was mostly silent, as Adam pulled into his driveway I noticed how well Adam and Mercedes had done for each other since we'd been gone. They didn't own a mansion however the large townhouse on top of a hill overlooking mountains did wonders for people who had previously been used to wandering the streets with no home.
Adam and Mercedes walked us inside. It was nicely decorated with a country home theme to it. Dean cut straight to the point. "So how do we kill the bitch of all hell's demons?"
"Cas or Crowley would probably know." Mercedes suggested.
"Cas might be too busy with the civil war going on. I don't know for sure how bad it is but when I was up there he barely could get in a word of warning before the angel's temporary base was infiltrated. Cas seems to be in a pretty bad way. I'll need to get up there and help him as soon as possible." I told everyone.
"You said Ithamar has support from Abaddon," Sam continued. "If that's true our first priority should be bringing down the head bitch herself."
"Because if Ithamar has no support from Abaddon," Dean began.
"He can't continue his war on heaven." Laura finished.
"That may be so but we can't ignore him either." I thought for a while my mind wrapped up in strategies of war.
"First things first though," Mercedes began. "You said Abaddon had Aria in hell?"
"Partially true, she's not holding her against her will but Abaddon is using Aria to control hell from the shadows. She's acting as her 'advisor'." Laura put quotations around the word and emphasized it with an exaggerated look of annoyance.
"We should find a way to talk to Aria." Mercedes spoke with confidence. "Maybe if I can talk to her I can remind her of the family she left behind." She wore a sad expression that nearly melted my heart. Mercedes really did try her best to take care of Aria, despite everything that happened she still considered herself responsible for Aria's safety.
"I'm going with you then." Laura spoke with certainty that dared anyone to oppose her.
"You're not going alone." Dean put his hand on Laura, his face resolute.
"I think three should be the max amount of people going. Now that Abaddon rules hell she'll most likely have tight security. Even if she doesn't know we've come back from the void she'll have us listed as public enemy number one." I proposed the idea and everyone else agreed, nodding their heads. "Then in the meantime, "I continued. "I'll report to Cas and Gabriel. I'll find out where Eli is and bring him home." I gave Sam a look of determination, which he returned with a nervous smile.