Chapter 31

Cas had been staring at Bobby's body for nearly a full minute. Dean's temper for this was wearing thin, "So Cas, you gonna Marty McFly me back to the future or what?"

Cas looked over at Dean sharply, "Dean, I - it is a difficult thing to ask."

Dean turned away from him, stalking toward the window, his hands on his head, "Damnit, Cas. You and your stupid friggin' plans to fix heaven get my kid murdered and it's a difficult thing to ask?"

Cas' voice rose in an angry rasp, "My grace does not replenish as it once did, Dean. Traveling in time requires a great deal of power. As you know."

"Cas," Dean said, his voice breaking, "Cas, she's my kid."

"I - I can't, Dean." Cas said, his voice heavy.

Dean lashed out, smashing his hand through the hotel's drywall.

"I knew I could smell your raging testosterone, big boy." A new voice snarked from the wall.

Cas and Dean turned, Dean pulling his gun and levelling it at Gabriel, who was leaning in the doorway to the bathroom, sneer pulling his mouth sideways, eyebrow raised. He swaggered forward, pushing the gun sideways out of his face. "Now you're gonna tell me that the rumor that Bobby Winchester is dead is wrong. Because if -"

Gabriel stopped talking and turned away from Dean, his eyes had fallen on the girl's corpse laid out on the dirty bedspread. He took a bite out of a candybar he had clutched in his hand and walked over toward her. When he spoke again, his voice had lost its usual lilt. "Was it those Hellions? Is that what got her?"

"Gabriel." Cas said rigidly, "You are supposed to be dead. How are you alive?"

Gabriel didn't listen to him, he knelt down next to the bed, "Hey, Mom." he whispered almost too quietly to be heard, pushing her hair out of her face. He blinked a number of times and forced the rest of the candybar into his mouth in one enormous bite.

Dean was staring at him, "You could do it."

Gabriel twisted his head up and glowered, his eyes rimmed with red, "Don't you see I'm a little busy here?"

"Hey you dick with wings, I'm going back to save her and you're taking me there."

Gabriel stood up, "You're going to save her? Where is your Sasquatch brother, why isn't he lining up to save her?"

Dean stalked toward him, "She's my kid and she's not growing up alone in a bunker. She's not getting ganked by a vamped out angel and she's not marrying Crowley."

Gabriel stared at him, "She's your kid?"

Dean made a face, "Yeah, the hell did you think? She's called Winchester ain't she?"

He shrugged, "I guess I... always assumed she was Sam's."

"Yeah well she's not." Dean said defensively.

Gabriel looked down at her, "So you want me to take you back in time so you can…"

Dean straightened himself up, "Kill the hellions and keep my from dying, and if I screw the pooch on that, pick her up as a kid, and let her grow up right, with a family."

When Gabriel replied his voice was softer than Dean had ever heard it, "Do you know what would have happened to me if I she hadn't found me when she did? Do you know how good she was for me? All the things she did for me?"

Dean didn't reply, he just looked long and sourly at Gabriel. Finally Gabriel looked down at the body and forced himself to laugh, "Alright, pretty boy, let's save her."

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

"You look stupid in that." I said, looking Crowley up and down, "Why are you wearing leather?" Outside of when I had forced him into it, or when we had been in the down and outs in the 2030's I had never seen in him in anything short of perfectly tailored. And here he was in raggedy, hardened leather.

Crowley shrugged, looking sort of offended, "Well I thought if I'd be hunting I might as well look the part."

I tilted my head at him, "Oh, you're going hunting? What about, hell?"

He shifted uncomfortably and looked up at the sky, "You want to hunt, darling? We'll hunt."

I stared at him for awhile, "Sure. You can tell me the truth later." Then he looked at me and his shoulders sank. His eyes looked caught between resentment and irritation.

I looked down at the body of the Hellion and I almost shouted. I wanted to hunt, I wanted to hunt with Crowley and rove the earth looking for adventure, snatching civilians from the jaws of death. I had forgotten I had an entire world to snatch from the jaws of death. I had forgotten, momentarily that regardless of my being happy as a companion of Crowley, he and I together, especially with the full auspices of Hell behind us, stood the best chance of killing the beasts that had murdered everyone.

He pulled a long and thin black spear head from his bag and tossed it to me, "Here, this is yours, its for the Hellions."

"Crowley we have to go back." I said softly. But before I could demand he explain the sneer he had answered that with, Achilles and Patroclus crept back, looking around pensively.

Achilles frowned at me, "What in Hades was that thing?" Gabriel rushed in after them, his eyes wide and afraid. "Mom!" he yelled, when he saw me. That had me distracted. My heart clenched up and I smiled at him, "I'm okay, Gabey baby." He rushed me then. It was a bit odd, being clutched by a body who looked entirely different, and was quite a bit bigger, than the body I had grown used to, although the way he moved made him unmistakably Gabe.

It was Crowley who answered Achilles, "They're called Hellions."

Gabe was quaking in my arms, he looked up at me, "That was an angel. I could see it."

I kissed him on the top of the head and pushed his hair back from his eyes. Hair that was uncomfortably not as soft as the hair I was used to. "It used to be, Gabe. It wasn't any more."

He shoved himself back from me and shouted, "No! I knew him! I knew him! His name was Halcyon! He's my brother!" His voice cracked and he turned away, pulling at his hair. I knew from his attitude that his wings were cracking around him, although I couldn't see them anymore.

"Gabe." I said sternly, he didn't turn, "Gabriel!" I yelled. He turned back in a rush, his eyes mad. "Gabriel," I repeated more calmly, "I know it hurts to see someone you love like that. And I'm sorry. But it wasn't the Halcyon you know." I paused and shrugged to Crowley before explaining, disregarding his look of disapproving warning. "Gabey, I'm not from here. I mean, I'm from a really long way in the future." He was blinking at me now, his face softening. "Remember, what I told you. My real name is Bobby Winchester. I was a human."

Achilles and Patroclus looked at each other at that, but I continued, my eyes only for Gabe, "Where I'm from, when I was born, there are beasts called demons." Crowley ruffled behind me but I continued to ignore him. "And the angels are fighting them. But the fight was lasting a very long time. So there was one angel, a friend of my father's, who sought out a secret that he thought would save his people."

"Who?" Gabe asked in a soft voice, "Which angel?"

"His name is Castiel. I called him Uncle Cas, and he was very brave. He was just wrong."

Gabe bit his lip, "I know Cas. He's younger than me. Just a little guy….I ….I taught him how to fly."

I pushed on with my story, "Cas volunteered himself to become a Hellion, it was a melding of demons and angels because the legend said that they could destroy the demons. And they they destroyed everything else too. Until it was just Hades and I and we were the only ones left. And a very special little boy named Ethan."

Gabriel was enthralled now and silence boomed in the little clearing, Achilles and Patroculs rapt. Gabriel spoke, his voice high, "How did it get here? How did you get here?"

"The boy, Ethan. He was the son of a god of time and when the Hellions captured him he sent them back in time one by one, so they could find more to eat. He took us too, he took us so far back we would beat all the Hellions, but it killed him." I heard Crowley clear his throat, but I didn't look at him, I couldn't tell Gabe that I had cut the heart out of this little boy.

Achilles stepped forward, "You were a human? You are a warrior from the future sent to kill monsters that destroy all?" He laughed, and clapped Patroclus on the shoulder, "I think we have found the right god to be following."

Patroclus didn't say anything but looked back at the dead Hellion. Gabriel was not smiling. He came back toward me and wrapped his arms around me. I could feel the warmth of his wings, invisibly encircling me. "I'm sorry about Ethan."

I clutched my boy angel to me and kissed the side of his head, "oh, Gabey baby."

He whispered to me and I was never sure how he gleaned it from my story, "It wasn't your fault, Mom."

XXXXX

The King of Hell smirked up at the bleeding angel, dangling from thick, glinting chains. She spit at him. He lashed out, the silver angel knife held loosely in his grip painting another stripe of red across her cheek.

He leered at her, "So, darling, you can either take me into the past, or I will set all of Hell against Heaven. We will break through the gates when they are at their weakest and tear you all apart. Tell me, with the angels in civil unrest, do you think a united Hell could be rebuked?"

She snarled at him, a broken voice rasping, "You will never take Heaven, you black eyed monster!"

He leaned up at her and smiled in her face, "I'm sure you're willing to bet your life on that. But how many angels lives are you willing to offer up? I do hope it's all of them. Or else, all you have to do is take me where I want to go."

She turned her head away and said nothing.

For the third time, he bared his teeth at her in a grin. The journal has made him think of something he had before, never considered. Angels started their lives as young angels. Demons were created born as humans and roasted black. But angels were born.

He clicked his fingers and the reaper he had found and paid lucratively, came in, dragging with her a tiny body. They had offered the angelling only the smallest of meatsuits, a point had to be made.

The dangling angel strained against her bonds and screeched, "RELEASE HIM!"

Crowley raised and eyebrow, "Oh, did you think that heaven was a safe place for them? Did you think you could protect them?" He raised the angel blade and let it slip down the chest of the young angel's little chest, a line of red opening on his skin, his face contorting in pain.

"Stop!" he screamed, crying, "Let me go! Please."

The full grown angel roared, "Fine! Fine, you beast! I'll take you wherever you want. But release the child."

Crowley chuckled, "Oh, its too late to save this one, you've wasted too much of my time for that." His arm shot out and the knife cut through the boy, his high pitch scream dying on his lips. Crowley wrenched the knife free and smiled warmly at the howling angel, "Now, let's go, unless you want an encore."

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

After rounding up the hiding Dionysus and Xed, I addressed my companions, "I light of the attack, I have remembered my duty." I felt guilty now for running from Hell. I had forgotten that Crowley didn't matter, my relationship with him didn't matter, and my ultimate happiness didn't matter. I was here to kill the Hellions and the might of Hell gave me a better shot at that than wandering the earth with a pack of vagabonds.

"I will be returning the the Underworld and focusing the strength of our armies against the Hellions. It is imperitive that we discover any that surface before they can gain a foothold and breed. It was foolish and selfish of me to leave."

Already I missed the open aired nights of my adventure and I hadn't even left yet. But this was the only important thing. "Dionysus, you are, of course, welcome in Hell at any time. Achilles and Patroclus, I expect I'll be seeing you too soon for my liking."

I tore open the doorway to Hell and Bones dove through, I looked at Gabriel, waiting for him to go in before me. He stood, fidgeting. Finally he said, "I'm not coming."

I blinked, "What?"

He bit his lip, "I'm not coming. I have to go home."

I frowned, "-but."

He straightened up, "I'll miss you, and I'll visit, but I need to help my brothers and sisters. I have to make sure Cas grows up big and strong so that he does all the stuff he's gotta do. And I have to make sure they don't make Hellions. Mom…"

I pulled him into another hug, "Alright, Gabey baby, you do what you have to. But you be careful. And you be safe."

He nodded at me and I kissed his forehead. Crowley ruffled his hair. In a flutter of wings he was gone. I blinked roughly, keeping myself composed and marched into Hell to begin, with my full attention, the task for which I had given Ethan's life.

XXXXX

Dean and Sam Winchester appeared with two angels by their side in 2034.

In another world far beneath them, the King of Hell was working with his most capable accomplice yet.

AN: Sorry for the giant long break but YEY. Everything is coming together and the story is forging ahead. Let me know what you think. Reviews are always dearly cherished.

Thanks for reading!