Author's/Underhill's Note: It's chapter 25! WOOOOOO! I think I got this one out relatively not horribly too late... Hopefully? There was this really early meeting at work (it's retail why are there meetings) and I got like very little sleep and it threw off my internal clock. Days... blurring together... But! Then I came home and wrote some more of this and cheered up. Now, th as usual! 1) DISCLAIMERS, I own nothing Supernatural here except the original plot disclaimers disclaimers disclaimers, 2) I LOVE YOU REVIEWERS. Virtual hugs and cupcakes and streamers and confetti, because you totally make this worthwhile. 3) I KNOW THERE IS A THREE. I WILL FIGURE OUT THREE. But, uh, I digress. I'm gonna go start chapter 26? Hopefully it will be up in a few days. Yessss... Also, please review! Point out plot holes, discrepancies or what you are/aren't enjoying! Feedback = goodness. NOW NEXT CHAPTER

March 13, 10 AM, halfway to Nevada

It's the morning after the Voice - - newly coined as L - - had the dream chat with Dean and Bela, and they're sitting in a diner booth drinking morning tea. Dean's making faces as usual at the taste and Bela's ignoring the behavior.

"So, last night," Dean says, because someone has to bring it up.

Bela sighs. "I was hoping to at least finish my tea in peace before we addressed work, Dean."

"So it's work, eh? We're going to help him?"

Bela shrugs. "We already have Liselle looking for signs of him and his Grace. It would be a shame to not use the information when she delivers it; you know how I do hate to waste money."

Dean grins. "You big softie, you."

Bela scowls.

"Picking up wayward strays. First the skin walkers, then the shifters… Now a poor, Graceless angel. And now? We're about to help some fluffy, defenseless werewolves."

"You're no better," she points out.

"Ah, yes, but I've always been a 'moronic, goody-two shoes do-gooder' according to you."

She smirks. "True."

"Never with monsters though." Dean looks contemplative as he says it, because it's true: they're on their way to Nevada to talk to some 'weres about a territory dispute or something. The details are a little muddy, but they'll figure it out once they get there. Bela is justifying it because there's a ceremonial Washoe staff rumored to be in the area and she wants to check it out. Dean, though…

"This feels weird, Bels."

She nods and takes another sip. "Tell me about it. And you shouldn't complain about the strays, Winchester."

"Really? Why's that?"

This time her smile is fond as she reaches out to ruffle his hair. "Because you're the first one I took in."

Dean leans into her touch. And I will never stop being grateful.

March 13, 10:15 AM, Michigan

Claire's sitting behind the wheel of her mother's car breathing slowly in, then out. "I can do this," she says out loud. "I can totally do this." She turns the key in the ignition and the car dies. "…I totally can't do this."

Claire's decided to start thinking ahead and part of that is learning how to drive. She knows she can't stay with her mom forever. Eventually, it's going to get too dangerous for her to stay in one place, and with her mom the ways she is… Well, Claire can't take Amelia with her. It's horrible, and it's terrifying, but Claire's not a little girl anymore. Her mom can't protect her, but Claire can protect her mom.

Breathe in, breathe out.

She steps down on the break and turns the ignition again. This time the engine roars to life and Claire hums in relief. Good, she thinks, good. I can do this. First step, learn to drive. If I'm mobile I can stay one step ahead of the game.

Claire pulls out of the driveway with twitchy fingers on the steering wheel. She checks the rearview mirror two times, not just to check for other drivers. Ever since she heard her mother murmuring about demons in her sleep, she's been freaking out. Every shadow makes her jump. Every person who looks at her too long triggers her fight or flight.

She hasn't been to school yet, and if her mom doesn't mention it Claire doesn't plan to. It seems stupid now, because the end is freaking nigh, and she won't need to know about World History when the world is dead.

The only good news she has is that she hasn't heard anything of import on Radio Angel, so no debilitating headaches; only the faint buzz of angel voices in her brain.

Claire just barely avoids a trashcan as she goes down the street. "I can do this," she tells herself. "I can totally, totally do this."

March 13, 12:09 PM, Indiana

Ghouls. The moment Adam reached the end of that article, he'd known it: ghouls. Looking at a copy of the magazine now, he can't imagine how anyone couldn't know it right away.

"Graves robbed in Indiana," he mutters, because that is so far from the most important detail. Graves robbed? How about man killed?

Over the last three months four bodies have been stolen, two dug up and one straight from the morgue. But what's most important is that a security guard is dead found in the cemetery, and a fourth corpse found half eaten in the bottom of a dug-up grave.

So now Adam's here and he's not exactly sure why. Revenge? Morbid curiosity? What? He knows the ghouls that killed his mom and him are dead (one of the few facts L did let him in on), but goddamn. He's angry, and he's directionless, and L's gone, and he's fucking tired of not knowing what to do. And someone needs to take care of this. Didn't L say there were people like his dad who killed these things? Where the hell are they?

But the real question is: what is he going to do now?

March 24, Michigan

Claire is in front of the TV when it happens. Doctor Sexy is on (and shut up, it's actually not that bad), and she's lying sideways on the couch with her Enochian dictionary lying on her chest, pretty much forgotten the moment she spotted Doctor Sexy's cowboy boots while she was channel surfing.

It's like a starburst - - white and burning and noisy without any noise and she can't even scream, just clutches her head and hangs on for dear life. So many voices voices voices all talking at once all shouting and saying the same thing and so angry angry angry. She passes out.

When Claire comes to she's lying face down on the floor. Her head feels like it's in pieces and she's parched though she's pretty sure she wasn't screaming, but she knows now: there's a third option. There was always a third option.

Claire rolls onto her side and wraps her arms around herself. Maybe if she closes her eyes and pretends to sleep it'll all go away. Maybe she'll fall asleep for real. And when she wakes up? She'll be home, and her mom will be in the kitchen, and her dad will be reading in the den, and Claire's life will make sense. She squeezes her eyes shut tight, knowing even as she wishes for it that life can never, ever be normal again.

March 24, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Sam and Bobby find out about Balthazar when the angel drops into the middle of the Hunters' reconciliation. Though reconciliation is a rough translation; it's more like Sam awkwardly saying "Hey" and Bobby gruffly telling him to grab him a drink and pull up a chair.

"WHOA," Sam yells, his chair falling backwards in his attempt to get to his feet. "Cas, angel! It's an angel!"

Cas looks away from the phone bank and behind him into the kitchen. He sees Balthazar nervously shifting from foot to foot, while Bobby's got a gun on him and Sam is scrambling to his feet.

"Oh. Yes. Hello, Balthazar."

Sam swings his head towards Cas. "You know him?" Cas nods. "You know him?!"

Cas frowns. "I said I did. Is there any doubt of this?" Sam behaves quite peculiarly sometimes, he thinks.

"What the hell is an angel doin' in my kitchen, boy?" Bobby asks.

"Same thing as I am, I imagine," he responds. "Assisting in the fight against Lucifer." At the dumbfounded looks the Hunters give him, Cas frowns. "Did I not mention this several weeks ago?"

"NO!" the Hunters shout in unison.

"Oh. Bobby, Sam, this is my brother Balthazar. He is aware of the situation in Heaven and has decided to help us. Is that an adequate explanation?"

"NO!"

Cas decides now is a good time to get up and go into the kitchen. "What questions do you have?"

"How do we know he won't turn against us?!"

"How do know he won't kill us in our sleep?"

"Why would an angel want to help us?"

"How the sam hell did he get past the wards?"

Cas waits for the questions to taper off and answers one at a time.

"He will not betray us; I have looked into his mind much as the way I looked into the Cupid's, Sam.

"He will not kill you in your sleep because he has known the location of this house for two weeks - - " Bobby makes a choking sound. " - - and he has yet to show you any hostility.

"He got past the wards because I altered them to allow his entrance.

"And as for why an angel would want to help us, Sam? Do not forget that an angel has fought beside you before." He gives Sam a significant look and Sam wants to slap himself - - because Cas is still an angel even if he's falling, and Cas has risked everything to help them.

"Are these all of your current questions?" Sam and Bobby nod with hesitation. Though it's far from the truth they owe Cas the benefit of the doubt; if Cas trusts Balthazar, they'll trust Cas. "Good. Now, brother, why news?"

"Adam walks free," he blurts out.

Cas doesn't react because he does not understand the significance. He already knew Adam has escaped. He forgets though, that Bobby and Sam have not. In his defense it hadn't seemed too relevant at the time.

"WHAT?!"

"Adam walks the mortal plane. Zachariah has checked all the Rooms of Heaven, Castiel. Adam is nowhere. He is not in Hell either. Which means…"

Cas's eyes widen. This is the significance, he realizes. The hosts of Heaven (and Cas himself) could not sense Adam on Earth (not they hadn't searched for him there anyway) so had focused the hunt in the many hidden Rooms in Heaven and all the levels of Hell. If he's not there then, "He is on Earth," Cas says with wonder. "He is truly Risen."

"Wait, you knew about this Cas?"

Castiel turns to Sam with a contrite look on his face. "I did not find it relevant. I did not think to tell you, and then…" Things happened.

"Not relevant?! He's my brother!"

Cas blinks and ponders on this. There was nothing the Hunters could have done to help Adam, who was obviously beyond their reach at the time. Therefore, why worry them?

In some ways, Cas will forever think like an angel.

"We cannot sense him, Castiel, which means it's another angel. Because any number of creatures can steal a soul and hide it, but only one can truly raise the dead.

"Who?" Cas asks.

"We still do not know. Zachariah has summoned all the angels. He is counting heads, and any who defy him he has destroyed. I have never seen him more angry, brother. I will have to return soon before he notices my absence."

"Another angel?" Bobby asks. "We got another angel on our side?"

"I do not believe so," Balthazar says. "Or he would have shown himself to you somehow. Have either of you been having strange dreams?"

Before either man has a chance to reply Cas grabs his head as he feels a sharp pain stab through it. It's Radio Angel, and it's so loud that even Cas, cut off from Heaven, can hear it. Balthazar winces as well, though it hurts considerably less for him than Castiel.

"Cas, you okay?" Sam asks, taking a step towards him.

"No," Cas grits out.

"What's wrong?"

"Something's happening."

"Where?"

But Cas and Balthazar are gone.

They appear in a sparse forest, in a blast zone exactly like the one Dean woke up to a year ago. Cas is clutching at Balthazar's arm, because the other angel has transported them both here. Cas is grateful because he does not know if he could have made the distance on his own.

Cas steps forward and starts towards the center of the clearing.

"Castiel," Balthazar warns, and Castiel understands because he also has a decidedly BAD feeling about this.

"I know." Reluctantly Balthazar follows. They reach a patch of soil different from the rest at the center and stand side by side staring at it. It's then that Cas hears it; someone has appeared behind them. He whirls just in time to catch the angel blade headed straight for him, seeing another angel tackle Balthazar out of the corner of his eyes. He can't worry about that right now though. He knees his attacker in the stomach and draws his own blade and they begin circling each other.

When a third angel comes up behind him, he stabs first the angel in front and then the one in back. Castiel was not called the best of his Garrison for nothing.

Balthazar has meanwhile managed to throw the third angel off of him and is crawling away. The angel raises his blade, prepares to strike and LIGHT. Balthazar rolls over just in time to see the third angel fall, Castiel's blade in his back.

"Cas, you just…"

Cas folds to his knees. "I know."

"You killed our br - - "

"I know, Balthazar."

"But - - "

"He would have returned to Heaven and reported your betrayal. You would have been… disciplined."

Balthazar gulps because he knows what Heaven's discipline is. He's never undergone it himself but he's seen the results; he almost lost Castiel to it.

"Brother…"

"Let's not speak of it," Cas waves him off. "Help me up." He holds up his hand and lets Balthazar pull him to his feet. Balthazar braces him when he almost falls over. "That took quite a bit out of me," he says.

"I can see," Balthazar says dryly. He walks them over to the center of the blast grounds and deposits Castiel to one side of the disturbance in the mud. It's a sign of how far gone Cas is that he doesn't object as wetness soaks through his clothes.

Balthazar bends closer to the ground (is that something moving under the surface?) and jerks back when a hand bursts out. Carefully, he leans back to grasp the dirty palm and pulls out a young man: dimpled chin, tidy dark hair, and a familiar build to him that makes Balthazar immediately recognize him. All angels would recognize him.

"Shit," he says, because this is a very, very bad sign.