I got to work on spells, right off the bat. Sam was kind enough to shut down the wardings so I could work without worrying about any difficulties or hold-ups from the Bunker. First thing to take care of was finding Cas and Kelly. If we could beat Lucifer, then we stood a much better chance. But if he got there first… We were screwed. I tried his phone again first, but just kept getting his voicemail.

"Hey, Cas… It's me. Everyone's alive, we're OK, but I really need you to answer me, please." I turned away from the others, keeping my voice low. "I know you're alive so I know that you're, well, alive. And I know that you're with Kelly, that you didn't kill her. On one hand I'm really grateful for that. You listened, you cared, and I'm really happy for that. But Sam and Dean's plan to make it safe for everyone… That's not a bad plan, OK? It's a good one, and one I'm pretty damned certain will work. I'm looking in to a few other options, but…" I stopped myself from rambling. "Look, I just need you to answer, OK? I just really, really need you to answer. I love you." I hung up, and got back to work.

Spells for finding Cas came first. That would be the quickest way to accomplish our goals. Find Cas, work from there.

Each spell I cast, though, fizzled out in front of me. Angelic tracking should've worked, it should have easily worked, but it didn't. And I was afraid to summon him in case A- it didn't work and B- he and Kelly were in danger, which would leave Kelly on her own.

Eventually I moved from the main room to a smaller side room. I took about two minutes to clear everything out, making sure there was still easy access in and our of the room and also stopping anything in there from getting blown up. "Trying some more experimental spells." I shouted out the door. "Don't worry." There was a round of slightly worried OK's, which I understood considering how a fair amount of the spells had already fizzled (or in the case of one, which had actually and quite literally blown up) in my face.

"What kind of experimental things are you talking here?" Dean asked.

"Mary can explain it." I said, thinking. "I need to grab some notebooks. Can you guys leave the wardings down?"

"Yeah!"

"Thanks!" I took a moment to disappear out of there, deciding it was worth the risk to go to the cabin. When I got there, it was empty. I took a moment to check for any leftover Men of Letter tech, and found two different microphones along with a magic sensor.

I'd been right to not come here before. Now, though… I took a moment to whisper in to both microphones. "Never come again." From there, they and the sensor were destroyed. I was quite certain that they wouldn't be coming back, but at the same time it would be better and easier to get my things quickly and leave.

Note to self, though. Sweep the Bunker later.

I grabbed my notebooks and a few spell ingredients I knew I would need before I showed back up in my makeshift spellroom. "I'm back!" I shouted. "If you guys hear some weird shit, don't worry!"

"OK." Mary was still doing her best to explain what I meant by experimental spells. To make it easier, I poked my head out to look at them.

"Advanced placement thing." I summed up. "Really, really fun."

"OK." The boys didn't look quite like they were certain, but they didn't quite exactly say no to my work. I walked to the kitchen to grab whatever else I was gonna need and got to work. I could modify those spells I worked on to find Metatron, try and change them for Cas. And there were the ones I used for finding Lucifer, too. I wrote them down after helping Crowley. I had options. "Where do you guys stash your angel feathers?"

"Down the hall, to the left, your old lockbox." Sam's answer was pretty simple.

"How'd you figure out the password?"

"Cas told us."

"Those are still just his feathers, right?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome." I headed down where he directed, and opened the box with a flick of my wrist. My witch wardings had been bad. I needed to improve those later.

There were a fair amount of feathers in there, enough to give me some options. I grabbed a good handful, and brought them back to the small room. And I got back to work.

A don't know how many hours passed, but I can count the explosions. Seven that were large enough to send me out of the room due to the amounts of smoke and flames, nine that actually did physically push me around due to the sheer force of the blast (I managed to hit each wall at least once until I finally positioned myself so that I'd just get sent out the door), fourteen that were enough to singe my hair and eyebrows (not that difficult to make them grow back, thankfully) and give me a nice new tan, twelve that threw soot in my face, and three that made a big-ass noise, but were all bark and no bite.

"Alright champ, break time." Dean decided, knocking on the wall. I turned over to look at him, probably looking like some sort of crazy metallurgy worker or coal miner or something.

"Gimme, like, three more tries." I requested.

"You've been in here for twelve hours." He replied. I widened my eyes.

"Well, that's twelve wasted hours then." I commented, running a hand through my hair. My fingers were met with soot and tangles. "Mind if I try to make these last three spells count then?"

"Get some food, first." He requested. "Some water. Maybe a chance to wash your face off." He took a glance at the angel feathers I had. "You've gone through a lot of those." I took a second to look at the actual pile size myself, and realized how many I'd gone through.

Shit, maybe I did need a break.

"Alright." I walked out to the smell of… burgers? Who cooked? My stomach couldn't care less, it grumbled at the realization. "Let me clean up a little first, and I'll be right there."

I took ten or so minutes to clean the grime and soot and evidence of failure off myself before I rejoined the others for food. At this point, I needed to accept the fact that Castiel had warded himself, and done it extremely well. I was kind of impressed, in all honesty.

But if I could get to him, then Lucifer definitely could. I just had to hope he was warded up good enough to slow the archangel down, if not hide from him completely.

I sat down with the others back at the BAMT, a burger waiting there for me. "Who cooked?" Dean raised a hand in response. I took a nervous bite, and when I realized how good it was I shot him a glare. "You knew how to cook this well and I did the majority of it when I lived here?!" I asked. Sam fought back a chuckle as Mary glared at her son and Dean… Dean just focused on the laptop in front of him.

"So… I've got a list of weird." He tried. I kept eating, motioning for him to continue. "Um… blackout in a bunch of different Texas towns?"

"Are they in the same area?" Sam asked.

"Were there any other weird instances around there?" Mary asked.

"No and no."

"Next." I replied.

"Kid born 5 weeks early?" Dean offered.

"Weird, but also normal." Mary said.

"Ok, well… Listen to this." He perked up a little at that. "A two-headed calf was born in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. That's weird."

"That is weird." Mary admitted.

"Yeah, but not our kind of weird." Sam pointed out. I nodded.

"Whatever this kid is able to do, it's going to be a lot bigger and more noticeable than some scattered blackouts or a single premature baby or a baby cow born with two heads." I agreed. "It's going to be more regional, not in a bunch of different locations, and it'll be freaking huge."

"Bigger and badder." Sam added. I felt a short surge, and dropped my burger as a presence appeared next to me.

"You rang?" I turned, unable to believe what I was hearing. "Hello, boys."

"CROWLEY?!" I asked, staring at the demon. He looked perfectly fine, as though nothing had happened.

"In the flesh." He motioned to himself with a small flourish. "Miss me?"

Dean moved before I could even notice, launching himself over to sucker punch Crowley before holding a blade to his throat. "Did you do it?!" His anger was instantaneous, and a little terrifying. "Did you let Lucifer out?!"

"Dean, stop!" I told him. Crowley raised his hands, trying to reason with the man.

"I didn't 'let,'" Crowley started, but Dean wouldn't have any of it.

"Don't!" He shouted.

"Dean!" I argued.

"Moose, a little help here!" Crowley requested, glancing at Sam. "Kylie!"

"Dean, wait." Sam said.

"Please!" I pleaded. Dean stopped, looking over at his brother.

"Seriously?" Him and Mary both spoke at once, absolutely baffled by me and Sam's choices.

"Look, just don't kill him." Sam said.

"Thank you." I added.

"He worked the Cage spell with Rowena. Maybe he can help us." Sam offered. Dean still didn't move. I wanted to just take the blade from him, but at the same time… I could understand his anger.

"And what if he can't?" Mary asked. Sam shrugged.

"Well, then we kill him." Sam concluded. I shook my head.

"No, we don't." I argued.

"Wait a bloody moment, Cage spell?" Crowley asked. "I Thought you had mother for that, or at the very least Kylie can do it with some time and work." At that point, I couldn't help it. I waved at Dean's blade, and it disappeared from his grasp to re-appear neatly on the table in front of him. He just glared over at me for a moment before turning back to Crowley, but he didn't pick up the blade.

"Rowena's dead." I told him. He looked at me in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really." Sam said. "Lucifer."

"Funny," he mused, a far-off look in his eyes for a moment. "I always thought I'd be the one to kill her."

"Crowley," Sam interjected. "Why did you do it? Save Lucifer… What did you want?" I'd been wondering the same myself, had been about to ask him, but… I hadn't gotten the chance.

"I wanted to win." He explained, a note of defeat and acceptance of it in his voice. "I perverted mother's spell, put Lucifer in a vessel of my own making because I wanted to win. You have any idea how many people have made a play for my throne over the years?" Crowley looked over at all of us, looked frustrated. "Lucifer, Abaddon, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Too damn many. I thought if I could put the Devil on a leash... my own personal nuke, no one would ever dare challenge me again."

"Yeah. That worked out great." Sam commented.

"It all ended with me narrowly escaping death by hiding in a rat, and making sure that she got out of there alive." He jacked a thumb at me for emphasis.

"Wait. In an...actual rat?" I was almost surprised to hear Mary ask that. Of all the things she'd seen and been through, and that was her only question. Nothing on Abbadon. Nothing on how Crowley wasn't Lucifer but was the King of Hell. Just about the rat.

"Wasn't too bad, really." Crowley admitted. "Gave me time to think. You know, I've been focused for so long on keeping my job," he looked over at me. "Never realized I hate it. All those whining demons, the endless moan of damned souls, the paperwork! I mean, who wants that?"

"Don't… Don't you?" I asked.

"Unh-unh." He shook his head. "Once, maybe. But now?" He took a glance over at me before finishing his words. "No. Not anymore."

"So why are you here?" Sam asked.

"Well, the wardings are down, I figured Kylie was here, and whenever there's a world-ending crisis at hand I know where to place my bets. It's on you, you big, beautiful, lumbering piles of flannel," he looked over at me next. "And the witch I trained myself, who by the way, am still proud of." Everybody gave me weird looks at that, but I just took it as it was. "So if you'll forgive my transgression, I'll make it worth your while."

"Which means?" Dean asked.

"After we put Lucifer back in his cage – together – I'll seal the gates of Hell." I widened my eyes at him, completely surprised. "You'll never see another demon again; apart from, of course, yours truly."

"You would do that?" Mary asked.

"Crowley, that… That's huge." I added.

"I know, and why not? They stabbed me in the back, I'll happily stab them in the front, the sides, and right up their little black-eyed asses." Crowley looked around at all of us, maintaining eye contact with me again for a moment. We need to talk soon. "So... we have a deal?"

"Yes." I agreed automatically, looking around at everyone else. They still looked at me like I was crazy. "Am I alive? Did he help? Yeah. Did he also kind of screw over us and the whole world as well?" I shrugged. "Also yes. But is he here now? One more yes. He's here to help. He's here to try and make it right." I looked around at all of them. "Can any of you name a time when you haven't made a monumental mistake, and then went back to try and fix it?"

Nobody said a word. Sam and Dean took in a breath, angry with the choice before them.

"Fine." Dean muttered, taking a few steps away.

"Fine." Sam agreed.

"I trust your judgement." Mary said. She and I had worked together enough for her to know I wouldn't side with Crowley light-heartedly.

"Thank you." I told them all.

"Thanks." Crowley's response sounded a bit more sarcastic than mine, but it was a deal. He helps, he seals the gates.

There was an awkward silence after that, and I looked around. Nobody wanted him there, save for me. "Come on." I stood up, grabbing the demon's sleeve. "You're going to help me." Everyone looked at me, still uncertain, but not quite because of me; because of Crowley being there. "I'll keep an eye on him, I promise."

I got some nods from everyone else, but no specific responses. I dragged Crowley off, ignoring his requests for a burger himself. "Come on." I muttered. I dragged him off to the side room. A second later, there was a silencing bubble around us, keeping our conversation solely in the room. Crowley took a moment to look around, seeing the results of my many failed attempts to track down Cas.

"What have you been doing in here?" He asked, surveying the space.

"Work." I answered. "Trying to track down Cas and Kelly before Lucifer finds them. What in the hell happened, Crowley?!"

"Do elaborate, please."

"I mean with Lucifer!" I was fuming. "Crowley, I'll stick my neck out for you, because at this point you're some of the only people I have left. But they're people too!" I pointed out the entryway, motioning to the people out there that considered me family. "Good people. And I know at this point, that you can probably be good too. I'll concede that to you!"

"Thank you."

"But Lucifer?!" I asked him. "You have to know that… that… that that was a stupid choice! It was insanely idiotic. I mean… You're the one who talks about chess and watching for every possible movement, but you blinded yourself to the possibility that he would get free. I mean, COME ON Crowley!" I threw my hands in the air, and watched a few sparks fly from them. "You know!"

"I know that I know." He replied. "I know. I'm fully aware."

"Then why?! Why do this?!" I shook my head at him. "Did you really need to win that bad, Crowley? Wouldn't putting him back in the cage have been enough?!" I watched for a moment, realization dawning on me. "This wasn't just winning back Hell, was it?" I asked. He didn't answer. "You wanted to humiliate him. You wanted to taunt him, to make him your bitch. You didn't just want to win, you wanted to take every piece first before you did." I watched, waiting for him to say something. "Answer me, damn it!"

"Fine!" He shouted. "Yes! I did! Are you happy now? I wanted to destroy everything of his. I wanted to win. I wanted to take out every piece along the way. I wanted to completely obliterate the Devil's sense of self-worth, and make him my personal slave."

"Why would you take that risk? You put all of us in danger by doing that! You put Rowena in danger, and now she's dead. You put Cas in danger, and he…" I reached down and grasped the rock. It was still warm. "He probably doesn't even know it. You put me and Sam and Dean and all of us in danger by doing that, Crowley. And now…" I brought a hand to my face, and realized that there was a tear trying to fall. I wiped it away as quickly as I could. "This is on you, Crowley. At the end of the day, Rowena's death is on you. Anyone else that Lucifer kills, be it myself or Castiel or Kelly or any of the rest of us, they're all on you."

"I know." Crowley repeated, his voice tired. Quite frankly, I was tired too; tired of hearing him say the same two words over and over again.

"I don't care if you know or not!" I told him. "Because I know you're not stupid enough to be purposefully ignorant from it, not since it's backfired in your face."

"Then what's the point of all of this?"

"I want you to actually care about it!" I answered. "I want you to give a damn about what you've done!"

"You don't think I do?!" He asked.

"NO!" I shouted. He seemed stunned by that. "Because if you cared…" I stopped, realizing I was a good three feet higher than him now. I lowered myself forcefully, doing my best to calm my emotions. "If you cared then you wouldn't have made this choice in the first place." I finally said. "If you cared none of this would be happening. But you didn't care about the rest of the world. You didn't care about those of us that stood beside you, those of us that actually give a damn about you, because I promise there was a point that Dean and Sam and Cas all cared, they cared more than you probably know. And I care. But you…" I needed to stay in control of my emotions. "You only cared about your own revenge."

"Don't…" Crowley raised a finger, pointing at me. "Don't you dare say I don't give a damn."

"Really? Give me one good reason why."

"Because if I didn't care, I would never have once bothered to protect you." He replied. "If I didn't care, you would cease to exist!"

"Really?" I asked. "That's your ace?"

"YES!" He shouted. "What more do I have to do to prove that I care?"

"I don't know." I admitted. "I just… This is a mess, one big mess that I just…" I walked around to the small desk, looking at the notebooks scattered about. It was all a huge mess, one that wouldn't be able to be cleaned up for a while. I scrubbed my face with my hand, deciding to change topics. We were getting nowhere with me just yelling at him and Crowley... He'd wanted something. "You… you said you wanted to talk about something. What did you want?"

"A favor." I raised my eyebrows at that.

"Really? A favor?"

"Yes." He insisted, looking around. He almost… he seemed like he didn't quite want to make eye contact. "I wanted to ask… I wanted to ask if you would cure me." Once he said the words, they hung in the air for a moment; heavy and honest and worrisome.

"What?" I had to double check, had to make sure I heard him properly.

"I want you to cure me." He repeated. "After I close the gates of Hell, I want you to… to make me human. I know you know one way, and I'm quite confident you've toyed with the idea at some point or another as to different ways to accomplish it." He wasn't wrong. I'd looked in to it while working for the Men of Letters, but my efforts had been quickly re-directed to other work.

"Why?"

"Because I am tired of my own existence." He said, and for a moment all I could hear was Rowena's voice coming from his mouth. "I'm tired of fighting for a throne I don't want, and I'm tired of being stuck with only one option in terms of character development. I am, quite simply, done." He admitted. "And I would like a chance to redeem myself in the future. You say that I don't care?" He shook his head. "I care. I care about the choices I've made, I care about the life I have lived, I care. I have cared for a lengthy amount of time, and every choice I have made since it started has either been to fight it, or has somehow made me care more." He looked at me pointedly with that remark. "Demons aren't supposed to care. Demons don't give a damn. I have fought against caring, done everything I could to make it stop, but I can't stop caring and can't stop these... feelings." His face soured at the word. "So I am done fighting. I am done walking with one foot in humanity and the other in cruelty." He took a slow, deep breath. "And I am asking… Pleading… for this favor from you. Please, if we can make it through this," his gaze was… honest. He was being honest in his request.

Everything that he was saying right now, he meant. He wanted to be cured. He wanted to stop being a demon.

"Make me human." He requested. "Please Kylie, please make me human."

After a few moments of silence, I answered. "OK." I agreed. "It's a deal. We stop Lucifer, you close the gates of Hell, and I… I'll make you human."

"Thank you." He nodded once, briefly. I surveyed the room around us. It was… well… kind of destroyed. At least, the walls and floor was. I focused my hand outwards on the walls, clearing away it all so that the room was back to normal. "It's hard to remember the girl that lit the curtains on fire, now." He commented.

"Yeah." I looked around. The room was immaculate, now. Just as it had been before. "I think… I think she's kinda gone, now."

"So who does that leave?" He asked. I waved my hand above us, dissolving the silencing bubble.

"Me." I said confidently. "It leaves me."

I walked out, about to re-join the others, when Crowley stopped me. "Before I came here, I made a stop with some old sources." He pulled a laptop out of his jacket. "Yours. No spy software on it. No Men of Letters tampering. It's 110% clean." I grabbed it from him slowly, uncertain of what to say.

"Thank you."

"No problem, Kylie." He hesitated a second before saying my name, putting a positive emphasis on the word. I felt… Better, from it.

I was me, after all.

We rejoined the others, Crowley following and taking a chair a little ways behind me as I got back to work. He had a piece of paper in his hand, notebook paper, that he was examining. It wasn't as important, though. I needed to look up different ways to… well… de-power an unborn Nephilim. I went back to the other room to retrieve a notebook I was certain was only half-filled, and another that I figured would be some sort of useful, before I hit the stacks. There were three different books on Nephilim, and only three. I could try them. I could hope they would have something.

Crowley poured himself a glass of Craig as he went between looking at us and investigating the piece of paper in front of him. Dean, Sam, and Mary typed away on computers with me for the next few hours or so as I researched all I could about Nephilim, and wrote down anything that could de-power the kid.

There wasn't much. At this point, it was looking like some minor surgery would be needed, or the kid would have to be alive to try some more. But right now… Our options were slim. Eventually I switched over to writing down everything I could remember about how Amara had bound Lucifer. I started writing down different spells and ideas, but I couldn't make sense of what they were or if they would work.

They looked like they would definitely do something, though. And they looked a little familiar. I couldn't tell if it was Amara-familiar, though. Maybe what I was writing down would have a sort of general connection to Lucifer?

Eventually, Crowley got bored. "This is what you do when I'm not here? Type?" He folded up the paper and put it back in his pocket, staring intently at all of us.

"Yep." Dean didn't even look up from his computer as he replied.

"I actually do bookwork and spells." I pointed out, holding up my book and written notes for proof.

"I'm quite certain you're also a typer too." Crowley stated. I refused to answer that time, just rolled my eyes at him.

"Wait a second." Sam said, gaining all of our attention. "I got something."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Okay," he took a second to re-read whatever was on his computer. "Two hours ago, there was a massive power outage in the Pacific Northwest."

"Definitely sounds weird." I commented.

"Sounds like the right kind of weird." Mary agreed.

"Oh, yeah. Wait. They tracked the outage to an address in North Cove, Washington, to a house currently being rented by one James Novak." I pursed my lips at that.

"I promise, I did talk with Cas about using names that aren't usually associated with him." I felt the need to say.

"Well, I've gotta say, I'm glad he didn't pick up on it completely." Dean stood as he spoke, grabbing a jacket off the back of his chair. "Let's roll."

"It's about time." Crowley muttered. I turned to put my things away, already plotting out what ingredients I would need for some possible ways to re-trap Lucifer. I had no guarantees any of them would necessarily work, but I had faith. Once I wasn't looking, I heard a cry of pain from Crowley. I turned instantly, hand raised, and saw Dean moving away from the demon; the blade impaled in his hand.

"Do you think we're gonna trust you out there after what you pulled? Hmm?" Dean asked. "No. Kylie may trust you, but I don't. So you stay here, you sit down, and you shut up."

"Dean!" I shouted, angry. "He's here to help, not hurt."

"He let Lucifer out!"

"He got me out, multiple times." I replied. "And he's closing up Hell for us. Don't you think that gives him at least a little trust? Enough to not stick a damn knife through his hand?!"

"Kylie," Crowley said, his voice surprisingly calm. "Dean is right." I whipped around to look at him, confused as hell. "I would be… compromised, if I were there. Too determined to win. You go with them. I'll stay here." I pursed my lips, looking between him and Dean.

"Fine." I agreed. "But I'm not leaving a knife in him."

"Kylie," Dean tried to argue, but I shook my hand.

"How do we know Lucifer isn't bringing any demons with him?" I asked. "It wouldn't be the first time he's done it and, not for nothing, but personally… I'd rather come with insurance that's not just my angel blades. And if you distrust Crowley that much, how do you know he won't try to steal it?"

Nobody said a word to argue, except the last person I expected to hear.

"Just go." Crowley muttered. "I swear to whoever, if you waste any more time with this I, personally, will kill you for wasting so much time." I glared at him, and he waved me off. "I'm serious. Go. You know where to find me if you all need my assistance."

I looked around at the others, waiting for them to speak. Nobody spoke to his defense or mine. I walked to the back room, picking up the ingredients I needed. When I came back out, I heard Crowley grunt in pain. Dean held the knife once more, and he set it down on the table. I watched him, curious.

"We trust her." He said, pointing at me. "You stay here."

"Deal." Crowley agreed. I ducked back in to the side room, grabbing a rag I'd used during spellwork. I passed it off to Crowley as I joined the brothers, looking over at Dean with respect.

"Thank you." I said.