"Dean?" Grace was still asleep in the back of the impala and the eldest Winchester was nowhere to be found, the black smoke was gone and everything looked to be clear. Checking to make sure his sister was secured in the car he looked the doors and wandered off to find Dean.

"Wait a sec. what do you mean she saved you?"

"Well, you were there. When the storm hit, everything went dark."

"Yeah, but you just disappeared from the car."

"I don't even remember that." The brothers finally made it back to Juanita's after about a 15 minute hike, The impala still stuck in the pot hole.

"Well, I don't remember some woman pulling you out."

"Well, what do you want me to say, okay? Was in the car, and then I wasn't in the car. I was in the field and she was there."

"And she told you she was the darkness?"

"No. she was wearing a nametag. What do you think?" Sam flashed him a 'Really' look, both of them knew this was no time to be sarcastic.

"She thanked me."

"For what?"

"Setting her free." Sam looked down at the ground, guilt reading clear on his face.

"I set her free."

"I doesn't matter."

"I mean, yeah, you said the spell, but I had the mark, so lock and key."

"So, what, now she feels indebted to you or something?"

"I dunno, she's the darkness. Does she feel anything?" Dean looked back to the car, "and that's all she said, thank?"

"Yeah. She was weird. But she had this energy about her, this—this focus. But, yeah, not a talker.

"So we know jack?"

"Well, we know what she looks like, and we know that she's evil. The question is, what does she know? I mean, she's been locked away since the beginning of time. Does she even know what a cheese burger is? All I know is that we set her free, and we're gonna put her back in, no matter what it takes." E got into the car.

"What the…" he got out and looked at the tire, still stuck in the water filled pot hole, "You were gonna just let me get in the car?" he asked his brother, staring at him with an unimpressed expression.

"You were on a roll." Sam shrugged, half smiling, half serious.

The boys pulled up to quite a mess, construction vans were empty, and the crew scattered about on the road, a few feet away a now deceased family still sat in their car. The brothers cocked their guns as they walked into the scene. Empty shell casings littered the pavement as they walked, assessing the situation. Grace was still passed out in the back seat of the Impala.

"The hell happened here?" a car door closed behind them, and for a second Dean thought maybe Grace had woken up, but no such luck as he turned to see no one.

"Hello?" from around the back of one of the utility vehicles stepped a man with black veins, "That's not a happy sight. Hey, easy, buddy. Just stay cool. Till we figure out what's going on here, okay?" the man ignored Dean and kept inching closer.

"Kind of narrowing my options here."

"We don't even know what he is." A sudden gunshot drew both boy's attention of a female officer, "Weapons on the ground. Slow."

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Easy, officer. We're FBI, okay? We got badges." They both went to reach for their fake ID's but she cocked the gun, getting ready to fire again.

"Don't. show me some skin."

"-Huh?"

"-What?" both brothers looked confused at her request, "Both of you."

"is this, like, a "Magic Mike" moment?" Dean tried to break the tension but she kept her gun steady,

"Your throats!"

"Oh, you thing we're—we're…we don't even know wat these are."

"I need to know you're not one of 'em."

"-one of what?"

"Let's go!" Sam and Dean asked no further questions, "Okay, All right, look. Huh? See?" she finally lowered her weapon and leaned against the hood of the parked squad car.

"Good. Let's see those ID's." she was injured.

"Yeah, whoa. All right. Take—take it easy, okay?" Sam and Dean got closer to see just how badly she was hurt, "Bad guys?"

"Rebar. I sought cover. I fell."

"Okay. Why don't you tell us what happened here?"

"911 reported a family in distress. I arrived to find several hostiles attacking said family. Oh, god, it was horrible."

"How long you been on the job, Deputy?"

"Uh…okay, three weeks." Dean wasn't sure what this woman was thinking now, three weeks on the job and she rushed into this kind of situation, "Okay. I'm Dean. This is Sam." In the moment he'd forgotten he had a comatose woman in the back of his car.

"Just breath. Okay? Speak plain. What happened?"

"They killed them all."

"Who?"

"Road crew. It was—they were like rabid dogs. I fired off a warning, but they didn't stop. They…"

"You killed all these?" Sam went to check the bodies "I knew some of the boys, but they didn't look—something was wrong. They were…"

"They're not human." Dean looked from his brother back to the woman, "Hey, look, I can stitch that up, but, uh, it's gonna be ugly. You got a hospital around here?"

"Up the road."

"All right." He put the safety back on his gun and helped her to the car, then it finally dawned on him,

"Oh shit."

"You have a body back here?" the woman looked alarmed, "She's not dead, all right? She's just sleeping."

"Looks dead to me."

"She's been through hell." The left out the part where she literally crashed back to earth like a bolt of lightning as they propped her up against the back, passenger side door.

"Well, this is encouraging." The hospital staff was in a similar state to the road crew, passed out on the pavement. "Wait here." Sam and Dean climbed out of the Impala to try and find someone who could help.

"And uh…leave her alone. Don't touch her." It'd be bad if this was the first thing Grace saw when she woke up, but neither of them knew she would actually be of use.

"So, what are you thinking?"

"I don't really know what to think. And I don't know what to expect in there, in here, so I'm just gonna chuck it all in."

"This is the darkness, right? It's got to be."

"So, what, she shows u and everything goes "28 days later"? we didn't."

"Yeah, but I was in the car, So was Grace. And you were—you said she protected you. So maybe it wasn't her. Maybe it was the smoke, and anybody who was outside, like the road crew, were exposed. I mean, you saw that. That wasn't human."

"So, what? The smoke mutated 'em? Sure, why not? Just a couple of hours ago, I killed Death, and She bolted out of the sky like a meteor, I'm pretty much open for anything. But mutated into what?" Sam shrugged his shoulder, uncertain of what else to say, they'd certainly dealt with weirder shit than this.

"All right, you know what, one thing at a time. Let's just get her some help and then we'll deal with whatever comes next."

Castiel knelt down, hiding from the police who had arrived just outside the farm house he'd been squatting at since "Killing" Crowley

"Brothers, sisters…I know I have no right, I have no standing to ask you—you anything, but these are desperate times, so ask I must. I confess my transgressions, and I will accept whatever punishment you dole out. Now, I…I ask you to help me. Please. Save me from doing worse." He stayed for another moment before standing and walking away.

Grace could hear him, but she couldn't move. Castiel was desperate.

"Cas…" she could see him, wandering, alone, but there was something wrong with him, "Castiel!" she tried again but still nothing, as she watched him run from the oncoming squad of police, she turned her head to the sky, blue eyes reflecting the stars she loved so much, she had no idea that she was just a projection, that she wasn't really there.

"Why don't you help him? Can you not see he is lost, and afraid?" her words seemed to be falling on deaf ears,

"He needs you, but you ignore his calls…he needs me…but I can't get to him. Somebody, please help."

"What's he doing?" the baby fussed in the back ground

"-Dean…"

"We made a promise."

"To do what? Charge out there, guns blazing? We don't even know how to kill them." Dean pointed at the officer, "She does. Chest, right? I'm guessing heart. Plus, we left Grace in the car. You wanna let them turn her into one of these freaks?" Sam nodded his head, Dean gad a point.

"This is madness.

"No. No, that is madness." Dean pointed out the window where the road crew was amassing, "This is horse sense."

"Save Mike's baby, but shoot mike? Tell me where that makes sense."

"Look, we can just wait for them to die."

"And what about Grace?" Dean looked at his brother with desperation, "We just got her back, Sammy. How long will it take for them to die? And when they infect others, how long is that? No, we stay here that baby dies, and so does Grace." Sam looked out the window to where the car was parked,

"We did this, Sam. Okay? We broke it, we bought it you know there's no other way." Dean's cell rang as Sam mulled over his words.

"Where the hell are you, Cas?"

"I'm…I'm okay."

"You don't sound okay."

"Dean, I am fine. Besides, what I have, you can't help me."

"What do you mean, what you have?"

"Dean, just please tell Sam—Rowena escaped with the book of the damned and the codex."

"Okay, forget Rowena. Where are you?"

"Now, you tell me—the Mark…" Dean couldn't believe this, after all this time he still came before the angels own well-being.

"Oh, really? You're worried about me after everything—"

"Dean, is it gone?"

"Yes, I'm good. I mean, I'm not great."

"That's two of us. This is good news." Dean put the phone on speaker "Hey, Cas."

"Sam."

"Okay, your turn. Talk to us about the Darkness."

"Why would I talk about the Darkness?" the angel did not like where this conversation was going.

"Because it's free." Breaking the news to the angel seemed to bring silence over the line.

"No, that can't be."

"Removing the mark opened some kind of lock. Dean Saw her."

"The Darkness is a woman?"

"Well, that's what we're asking you. We were hoping you could tell us wat kind of defcon screwed we are. Cas?"

"Sam, Dean…goodbye. It may be sometime before we see one another again."

"Wait, Cas. Cas!" both brothers had omitted that Grace had fallen when the Darkness had come , they knew the angel would have come speeding back at that, but he seemed like he was on a mission and didn't need a distraction.

"FBI, my ass."

When Castiel turned around, two other angels stood, arms crossed and blades out.

"Brothers."

"You called for our help, but we did not come for you. We received another call." Castiel titled his head, narrowing his eyes. "There was no one else with me, I assure you."

"No, we received a request to assist you. From someone higher up." Higher up, that didn't make any sense, Naomi was dead and God was M.I.A

"Who?" the men shared a look "Avarin." Castiel looked at his Brothers as something came back to him, memories of a little girl, but there was no way.

"Avarin?"

"Yes, Castiel, you might know her as Grace Winchester." There was no way she could have sent out a call for help,

"There's no way. Grace is dead. Dean killed her."

"And now she's back on earth. You are lucky she is n your side Castiel, or we'd kill you right now." Why had Sam or Dean not told him she was back? It didn't make sense, not that it was safe for her to be near him right now.

"Sir, there are rumors from hell."

"Rumors?"

"The Darkness has been released." Crowley laughed as he approached his henchmen "The darkness? Please. Myth. It's a bed time story. Something that daddy demons threaten toddler demons with to get them to eat their vegetables. Even if it was true, what the concern? Darkness, king of Hell—natural allies."

"It's just—something happened, sir."

"Something happened?"

"Something else fell with the Darkness." Crowley turned, interest Piqued. "What?"

"The female Winchester, Sir, She shot to earth like a meteor." There was a tug of a smile on Crowley's lips, "So, she's back from the dead? Can't say I'm surprised, the whole family have a habit of not staying dead."

"There was one other thing, Sir. Something happened in the cage."

"What?" whenever something involved Lucifer's cage it was never good, for any party involved.

"Uh, they said it sounded like a frightened animal. All of hell heard—like someone was going crazy. The rumor is that Michael or Lucifer—one of them is trying to warn us."

"About the Darkness. Ridiculous."

"Except…half of hell is sort of freaking out, Sir." Crowley looked deep in thought as the underling carried on his report, "What do we do?"

"After Metatron escaped, we moved the door to heaven."

"Yeah, Smart." The other angel's had Cuffed him, it was better to be safe than sorry, all things considered.

"You know, to prevent further incidents."

"Of course. I would have done the same thing. Before we go back, we need to find a witch or someone who knows spell craft to remove the…Ugh." The angel hooked Castiel's cuffs to a hook, dangling from the ceiling.

"I don't understand." The other angel advanced with a black cloth and he finally figured out what was going on,

"You're not taking me to heaven."

"No, we're not." The angel slipped the bag over Cas' head and it all went dark.

Dean waited for Jenna outside the Gas station, Sam had called and told him things were going just fine and now he sat, Graces head propped in his lap, staring down at her peaceful expression

"Hey, Gracie. I know—I know you're sleeping, but things are tough right now and I could really use a friendly ear." She made no movement, of course.

"I'm Scared. Sammy's back at the hospital, Cas is AWOL, Rowen has the Book of the Damned and the means to translate it…and me…" he sniffed, running his fingers through his sister's hair.

"Dean…" it wasn't anything big but to him it meant the world hearing her voice, looking down there had been no change, she was still asleep, still comatose, but she had registered that he was taking to her.

"Shh, I'm right here, Gracie. I'm not going anywhere." There was a sad smiled plastered on the eldest Winchesters face now as he cradled her.