It was a beautiful day.

The meadow was simply sparkling with sunshine and life. Mountain ranges surrounded the large expanse of grassland and flowers, and he sighed. He absent-mindedly touched the petals of a purple flower beside him, and looked around him.

She was walking across the field towards him, in a white dress that was flowing behind her in the gentle breeze. Her golden hair was shining as brightly as the sun. She was beautiful. He smiled and stood up, taking a deep breath. He felt revived and invigorate somehow, relieved of a hidden plague.

"I wasn't sure I'd see you again." He said as she reached her hands out to him. Grasping them, he noticed how cold they were.

"We don't have much time, Dean." She said firmly, and the look on her face frightened him.

Dean blinked a few times, and became aware of a throbbing pain in his head. The pit in his stomach returned. "What d'ya mean?" He then noticed that there were tears rolling down her cheeks and her lips were trembling. "Lirael, what's wrong?"

She stepped towards him so that their bodies were touching, and put her hands against his chest. "I'm scared." She whispered into his ear. "It hurts so much to be away from you and I don't know why." Dean understood what she meant, now that she was in-front of him his heart felt calmer. Despite this, the adrenaline pumping through his veins told him that there was something deeply wrong and he had to stay focused. "The demons are going to try to get to you through me; they think that we are connected."

"I don't –" He felt so confused, why was she so upset if they were finally together again?

"Whatever you do," She interrupted. "Do not come for me. Castiel must find the remaining shards of your soul or you'll remain too vulnerable. I am dispensable, you are not."

"That's not true, Lirael, please-"Dean pleaded, holding her arms and looking deep into her eyes. The angel forced a smile and opened her mouth to speak, but she started fading in front of him. "No, stay with me!" She was still trying to speak but Dean couldn't work out what she was saying as she continued fading into nothingness. She was soon gone and Dean was left alone with the perfect day.

When Dean woke in his bed, he was yelling out for her.

Her eyes fluttered open, but it felt easier to keep them closed. Every inch of her felt bruised and broken.

Blinking her eyes a few times, she tried to force her eyes to stay open.

The wall straight ahead of her was made of concrete, but was moss-lined. There was a table in front of her, but her eyes were unable to focus on whatever was shining upon it. There was little else in the room except a door that was behind her to the left. She thought it was a safe assumption that she was probably underground. She always felt suffocated when she was beneath the earth, a reminder that she belonged in a much higher plane. There was no one with her as far as she could tell, but her senses felt woozy. Whatever they had done to her, it was powerful, even for her.

She tried to move, but realised she was tied to a chair with some sort of metal rope that was scraping against her pearly skin. However, it stung to struggle against it so she resigned herself to the fact that she was stuck. This resignation was reinforced when she noticed the ring of flame burning around her. Luckily, there was enough distance between her and the flame for the heat to not affect her, but this was no comfort; they knew who she was.

She tried to remember the last thing that had happened before she had woken up, but everything was hazy. Images of Dean appeared, though fuzzy, and being surrounded by beautiful countryside…The back of her head suddenly felt sore, and she realized that she had been hit from behind. She remembered that she had been looking for the charge that had summoned her, when she was attacked. This thought did nothing to soothe her. It is not easy to hurt an angel, never mind knock them unconscious.

A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.

There was someone coming. Someone who emanated waves of power from their being.

Lirael realized that she was in a great deal of trouble.

Castiel had his hand on Dean's shoulder. "Please, I need you to calm down."

Dean shook the angel's hand away and turned around. "I can't calm down, okay? She's hurt. It feels like I've stabbed in the chest a thousand times, and believe me I know that feeling very well." Dean was tearing at his hair and his clothes, but nothing could soothe the terror and anguish he was feeling.

Castiel sighed. Dean had been in so much pain over the last 24 hours, pain that was inexplicable and consistent. The angel had had to use his abilities to numb the pain so that at least it was bearable. The truth was Castiel didn't know how to tell Dean what was going on. If Lirael really was subject to this much agony, then the foe they were up against was of a different caliber to other demons, even Lilith. Perhaps Baal was real. "I understand, but we need to figure out our next move." He told Dean as gently as he could, but his brow was furrowed in a worried frown.

"Our next move? God, Castiel. Come on!" Dean shouted, kicking a chair across the room in fury. "I need to find her."

"I understand that, and we will, but didn't you say that she thought it was a trap?" The angel said, trying to reason with somebody that he knew did not think with a rational state of mind. He had been trying for what seemed like a lifetime to make Dean see the bigger picture and it had only worked once; when Dean agreed to be Michael's vessel. "I agree that we should continue the search for the rest of your soul before trying to find her."

Sam then came through the door of the motel room with his cell phone to his ear. "Thanks, Bobby. Let me know if you find anything else." He said, snapping the phone shut. "We might have something. Bobby said that there's been some electrical shortages over the last day across the state," Sam went to the table and looked through the papers that had been scattered across until he found a map of Colorado. Dean looked at him across the table, his face a picture of pain and desperation. "But, the power's gone out in almost straight lines, not by blocks or grids," he explained, taking a pen out of his pocket. He began to draw several lines on the map, all pointing to one section of the map. "All across Colorado the power outages point to here, a place called Georgetown."

"But why electricity?" Castiel interjected, his eyes looking laboriously across the map. "Problems with electricity are normally associated with spirits, are they not?"

"Usually, yeah, but it's a lead."

Dean starting putting on his jacket. "Come on then, let's go." Sam and Castiel just stood there looking at each other. "I said, let's go." He said through gritted teeth, his fury nothing but apparent.

"I'm sorry, Dean, but we need to think about this. If this Baal is as bad-ass as we think, we can't just go charging in there, it'd be suicide."

"There's going to be a homicide in this very room if you don't get your ass in the car, Sam." Dean growled, squaring up to his younger brother.

"I hoped it wouldn't come to this." Castiel said with a sigh, walking up to Dean and tapping him on the forehead. Immediately, Dean fell to the ground unconscious. The angel knelt down, picked him up and carried him to one of the twin beds. Sam raised his eyebrows. "We don't have time for arguing. You and I are going to scour this planet together for your brother's soul. Then, we will find Lirael." Castiel hoped with his entire heart that the two were not connected, though his instinct was telling him that it was certainly a distinct possibility.