Warnings: I could say that violence, but it's not like you're not used to it if you're here in this chapter. Also a lot of deaths.
A/N: The meaning behind the title is here: "angelsarewatchingoveryoudean . tumblr post/69345368062/a-broken-hallelujah-were-not-alone-anymore"
Only one day later than what I thought I would. And thanks Karma for being like an un-official Beta :)

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Chapter 7

We're not alone anymore

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When the angels had been expelled from Heaven, banished from it forever, Jehoel had not had a vessel. So he had just fallen, scared, not understanding, burning. He ended inside the closest human. Poor Brian had been a good guy, he had been a social assistant, his dream to make the world a better place. When Metatron stole Cas' grace and cast the spell, he had been planning on how to propose to his girlfriend.

Brian hadn't had a say on it. He was trying to find something to watch on the TV, when he saw white, and then nothing. The force of an angel arriving on his body, killed him, besides there was no other way as two souls cannot reside in the same body. Jehoel had been lucky, because Brian was young and strong in his mid-thirties and he had been good looking which would ease things to him. The shock from being something ethereal and celestial to suddenly being confined into a physical form had left him unconscious for several hours. He had woken up under the caress of a young woman. He had snapped her neck after he realized that he couldn't smite her. Once he had understood that he had fallen away from Grace, he had ran away.

On the run, when the thoughts in his now limited brain had finally cleared, he knew what had happened, and that as it was usual lately in all the disasters in Heaven, Castiel was to blame. Some time after, Harry the hunter had found him. Jehoel was lost, so he took in the hunter's hospitality. There he found Elisheva. She had been good. But Castiel had been Castiel, and now Elisheva was dead.

He was smart. So he knew when to run away, so he had run it. Sometime later Lucifer had found him. The archangel had told him how he had been freed from the cage, but Jehoel knew that already. What he hadn't known was that Michael had been weak after his time locked in and that Castiel and the Winchesters had used the occasion to kill him. Lucifer had told him, that he meant to restore everyone to where they truly belonged. But that first he needed his help, Jehoel had accepted gladly.

"Do you think he's ready?" one of his fellow angels asked him.

"Yes, throw him in the tank already," he replied.

The Croatoan infected man was struggling and gagging trying to get free from the ropes that held him down. Insensitive to pain, his wrist were bleeding because of the ropes incrusting in them. It took two fallen angels to put him inside the water tank. As Jehoel was the leader, he took the pleasure of ripping the guts of the man. The blood stained the water red, but after a few seconds the water became transparent once again, like there wasn't a dead Croatoan bleeding in it.

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"So get this," said Sam finally diverting his eyes from his computer, "this is flash news. So I guess we can still arrive in time. This hotel in Wisconsin, people start going insane, killing one another."

"So, we have a case of mass demonic possession?" asked Dean before taking another sip from his beer.

"Yeah, it would seem so, but here's the thing, the 911 operator said that the survivor he talked to said that to some of the people the got their hands on, they were forcing them to drink blood. So unless they are trying to create a new army of demon blood addicts, I doubt that it is demonic possession," Sam told him.

"You're not implying that it is..." Dean trailed off.

"I'm afraid so," confirmed Sam.

"Son of a bitch," insulted the hunter. "Okay," he sighed, "let's kill some croats. Where it is?"

"Hotel The Pinnacle, in Sterling, Colorado," informed his brother.

"Dean," intervened Cas while they grabbed their bags and headed to the garage, "I believe that will have to do more than just killing some croats," and if Dean noticed the lack of air quotes when the fallen angel said the new word, he said nothing. "With Lucifer free and considering last time, I doubt that it is just an sporadic case. We need to find out if this is the only case and if they're trying to spread it wider than just this hotel."

"Well, if that just doesn't make things cheerier," celebrated Dean sarcastically opening the door of the Impala.

Cas headed to the passenger's seat. Since he had started hunting with the boys, he and Sam had started a silent game, it hadn't started as such, but it was their thing now. The unspoken number one rule was that whoever got to the passenger's seat first got to sit on it. The other rule just was that it had to be subtle, things like running and pushing the other were not allowed. Cas wasn't even aware that he was playing a game, but somehow he had fallen into it and he liked it. And this time he had won.

"No," said Dean with a voice so sharp that it could cut through steel when Cas got his hand on the handle. "You go in the back."

Cas stayed frozen in his place, the words and the tone of the hunter had taken him by surprise.

"Come on, Dean, we don't have all day," complained Sam.

"No, he goes in the back," insisted Dean refusing to enter the car.

The amount of hurt that was being inflicted by Dean could be seen in the fallen angel's eyes. He wanted to ask why, but he was afraid. If he was afraid of the possible answer or that Dean would directly tell him to stay behind in the Bunker, he didn't know.

But he knew that he was there just to protect Dean and he had no rights to claim regarding the hunter. So passing by Sam, he took the back seat without complaining. Truth was that Dean was hurt. Cas' rejection in the vampires' house had cut deep into the hunter's heart. He had seen the love, the lust and the devotion in the ex-angel's eyes, so the rejection made him feel insulted. Because it told him that Cas didn't want to feel what he felt, that he was not good enough for the fallen angel. He knew it of course, he was no good for no one, but even so... He felt like all those years of deep bonding had been a ruse, he felt betrayed. He wanted to tell Cas to leave the Bunker and never come back, but he couldn't do that, because he still need him.

"You're being an idiot, Dean," Sam said to him, once they were all inside the car. He didn't knew what had passed between his brother and the former angel, but he knew that Dean was behaving like an idiot anyway.

"Shut it, Sam," Dean snarled at Sam.

"No, Dean, you just behaved like a jerk, and I'm not saying it playfully," commented the youngest hunter, he loved his brother but Cas was also his friend and he wouldn't let him be bullied, not even by Dean.

"I mean, Sam, shut it!"

Only Dean dangerous glare silenced Sam. For now.

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The hotel seemed a war zone. The furniture was broken and teared apart, there was blood everywhere and Dean reorganized the remainders of a human intestine in a corner. Guns loaded, they found their way around the hotel. The ground floor was empty of Croatoans, mostly, one had appeared but she had been easily put down by a shot in the head.

On the second floor however, they found a room with survivors. Sadly for Sam, the first to enter the room, he was welcomed with a blow to the head with a stick. Fortunately, Dean and Cas arrived fast to convince the survivors that they were in fact no Croatoans.

There were six survivors. Fred and his daughter, little Daphne, Daphne's mom had already been taken by the virus; Susan, the maid; Brad, the young and successful business man; Mrs. Norrington, the famous mystery writer, and Pete, the chef who had survived thanks to the blade of his meat knife.

"So how did it start?" asked Dean wanting to know where they were standing with this whole situation.

"It started like, ten... twelve hours ago," said Susan who clearly was the one who had been holding everything together, "The first to start acting weird had been Esteban, at the beginning he just seem to be in a particularly awful mood, he screamed at everyone and then suddenly he jumped on our manager and snapped his-"

"Daddy, I'm thirsty," interrupted Daphne.

Everyone looked at the little girl.

"Okay, honey," said Fred getting up and taking a glass and filling it with water from the faucet in the bathroom, "Here you have."

The girl took the glass and drank avidly.

"Like, I was saying," continued Susan, "Esteban killed our manager and then everyone else started behaving as if they were possessed. They started killing people, and some of them forced other to drink blood. And the ones who did, started acting like possessed too. It was Hell," said Susan.

"Yeah, I never thought I'd used this knife to cut something else that cow meat," commented Pete, the chef, looking at his bloody knife, "but it was us or them."

"When I found Pete, I thought that he was possessed too for a moment. Then I realized that he was one of the few sane ones," Susan told them.

"He saved my life too," added Fred, hugging his daughter hard against his chest. "Katie had just come out from a shower when she started to behave strangely, she had grabbed a knife and she was about to hurt our Daphne and that's when Pete come in and- and-" but his sobs wouldn't let him continue.

"Hey, hey," Susan came to him, "grip it together, it's not time to lose it now. Your daughter needs you."

"Daddy, I'm thirsty," said the seven year old girl.

"Okay, honey," said Fred putting down his daughter and cleaning his tears.

"And how did they found you?" Sam asked to Brad.

Brad stuttered the beginning of an answer. Susan laughed.

"We found him running down the hallways screaming his lungs out," she said.

"That's not what happened," exclaimed Brad pointing an accusatory finger at Susan.

"Pal, you had peed yourself," barked Pete in what seemed to be a laugh.

"What about you, Mrs. Norrington?" asked Cas.

"Oh, darling, call me Esther," said the old lady, "I woke up from my nap and knew that something bad was happening. I heard them outside," she said pointing to the rest of the group of survivors, "and made them come in."

"I'm telling you," sighed Pete, "it all started when they found that dead guy in the water tank. That was bad mojo."

"What dead guy?" inquired Sam eagerly, thinking that they had the thread of something.

"One of the workmen. They found him dead in the water tank," explained Pete, "I can't remember if they managed to get his body out before everything started."

"And how did this guy died?" asked Sam.

"Had his guts ripped out or something like that," informed Pete, "The water tank, strange place to dump a body if you ask me."

"Son of a bitch!" cursed Dean when realization hit him. His eyes locked with Cas and then with his brother. They both knew too.

"Daddy, I'm thirsty," said Daphne once more.

The oldest hunter drew out his gun and pointed it to the girl.

"Dean, what are you doing?" shouted Sam, putting his hands up ready to jump on his brother and stop him.

"The girl, she's infected!" claimed Dean, gun aimed straight t the girl's chest.

"No, no, she's not!" jumped the father hugging his girl and protecting her with his own body.

"Don't you get it? The water is infected with the Croatoan virus. And that girl had been doing nothing but drinking water since we got in."

"No, not my Daphne! Not my baby! You won't hurt her!" screamed Fred still using his body to cover her.

"Haven't zombie movies taught you anything? That's not your girl anymore," said Dean gesturing with the gun, "Now, move," he ordered.

It was fast.

"No!"

"Dean, wait!"

Bang!

Fred fell dead to the floor.

"Dean!" shouted Sam furious, "Are you happy now?"

The death glare that Dean threw at his brother wasn't as much hurtful as it was broken. As if he was daring Sam to tell him the last time he had been happy.

"Sam, Dean is right. The girl is infected," argued Cas, "It was foolish of the father to step in."

"Oh, come on Cas!" complained Sam, "you're truly-" the hunter babbled trying to find the right words, "She's just a little girl, Dean!"

He was angry because with the devil set loose Sam couldn't afford the gray moral. Nor he could afford a broken brother and a broken angel. He needed to believe for a while longer, that even with all the shit hitting the fair, that what they were doing was right. But then again, he was a Winchester and what a Winchester wanted never got along with reality.

"She's not anymore, Sam, she's a croat!" shouted Dean back.

As to prove Dean's point, Brad's high-pitched scream drew back their attention to Daphne. The girl had taken down the man and was piercing his chest with her bare fist. After Dean had swiftly shot her in the head, Brad was left convulsing in the floor, blood coming out in weakening pulses from his mouth and chest until he died.

Silence reigned the scene for a while. The remaining survivors were shocked. Dean's silence held anger, he was angry at himself, at the situation that resembled too much that one of that 2014. He hated croats and he hated his own decisions. He could see the path that was forming and he didn't like it one bit. Sam could see it too and he understood, he understood now of what his brother was so afraid of. It made him more empathetic of his brother but he was also getting afraid. Cas remained impulsive.

"What I fail to understand is why do this here?" said Cas. "What was their purpose?"

"It was an experiment, a test," answered Dean finally putting away his eyes from the dead girl.

"If it was a test, then they plan to do it on a bigger scale," said Sam using Winchester logic. "The Water Central," he whispered, realization hitting on him.

"We need to go, fast," commented Cas, his eyes widening with the urgency.

"But we can't leave all these croats here," added Dean, "we have to kill them."

"We don't have the time," argued Sam, "we're probably already late as it is."

"We could split," said Cas, but he knew it was not a good idea since before the words left his mouth.

Before anyone else could comment something on Cas' idea, Susan intervened.

"I think I had a solution," she said. "I heard one of the workers saying that he needed to go to a demolition and that he was nervous about all the explosives in his car. We could make this hotel explode with all the 'croaches' inside," the maid said.

"How do we know that he didn't leave with the car?" asked Sam.

"I killed him when he attacked us," explained Susan.

Sam muttered a faint "Oh."

"Then we need to get to the car and split to put the explosives," ordered Dean.

They all looked at each other. They were three hunters and three civilians, two of whom were apt to do what it takes, but one...

"You go, darlings," said Mrs. Norrington taking by herself the elephant in the room, "I'll just take a long nap," she elaborated grabbing from her nightstand a flask of sleeping pills.

"But..." said Susan.

"I would only hold you back," said the old woman. "Besides I already had a long life," and she poured five pills in her hand. "Go," she rushed them, "you're wasting time," and she swallowed down the pills.

Nobody liked leaving Mrs. Norrington behind, but they had to hurry. Arriving at the car that was in the parking lot had been easy. They had found some croats along the way but they were nothing that a couple of bullets couldn't stop them. In spite off how angry Dean was at Cas, the image of the fallen angel shooting a gun left him with a bad feeling that he just couldn't shake off. It felt so... wrong.

When they had taken all the explosives out of the car, and after dealing with their distribution, they faced a problem.

"Somebody's going to have to stay behind," said Dean.

"That's no problem," exclaimed Susan, and when she felt all the looks upon her, she added, "I washed my hands."

"But that's not-" enough would have finished Sam, but Susan showed him a tiny cut she had in one of her hands.

"For what I understand, I still have like an hour," sighed the woman.

"It depends..." commented Dean, "but yes..."

The woman could feel all the pity looks on her, but she ignored them as she ignored the thirst she already felt.

They split in three teams to put the explosives around the hotel. Susan and Pete went with Cas and Sam respectively, while Dean went on his own. Setting the explosives wasn't complicated, but getting to the key points without getting stopped by croats hadn't been easy. They all met back in the lobby.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Sam, still uncomfortable with sacrificing people, even if it was for the greater good -and even if they were almost dead people anyway.

"I am," replied Susan, "and even if I wasn't we don't have that luxury."

Dean was motioning for the rest of them to leave, but Pete shook his head and spoke, "I ain't going anywhere."

"What do you mean?" Dean questioned him with little patience.

"'Am staying," he said, and before anyone could question his decision, he continued, "My son was the dishwasher. He was the first I killed," he said, his eyes, shinning with tears, rested on his knife, "He was all I had."

Each one of the three hunters nodded accepting the man's decision. But Susan wouldn't.

"No," she said firmly, "That's stupid and coward and selfish. No. You think you are the only one who ever lost people? Well, news to you mister, you aren't. Want to die? Okay, no problem, but at least do something useful," the woman confronted him, "There's people's lives at stake here. They need help to stop this damn virus thing. If you want to die, die with a fight," she finished, her steeled look left no room for discussion.

"Okay," agreed Pete silently.

After a brief but awkward silence, Dean spoke. "Alright, let's go," his voice charged with a commanding tone.

He said nothing, but he shared one look with Susan acknowledging her sacrifice and thanking her or it. With no words being exchanged between any of them, they all left the building.

They were close to the Impala when Susan pressed the button. First there was fire, a second of silence and then the building started collapsing in itself. Neither of the three hunters looked back. Because cool men don't look at explosions, and even less do men with guilt in their hearts. The memory of what had happened to Ellen and Jo weighted on them.

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Dean broke several speed limits on the way to the water plant. Not like he cared when the fate of the world was on stake. When they climbed down of the car they saw that a group of more than twenty demons and angels were waiting for them.

Sam had Ruby's knife and both Dean and Cas had their angel blades on hand, Pete was armed only with his kitchen knife.

"As soon as you kill one of then, grab one of those silver blades," Dean instructed to the chef, "Those will work to kill the demons."

"Hello, guys," a red haired woman greeted them, her eyes were black for a few seconds, "We were expecting you."

"Yeah, yeah," said Dean impatient, "Can be cut the whole evil speech and get directly to the fighting?"

"I don't think so darling," said the demon, "Let's speak for a moment, first."

"No, thank you," answered the hunter and charged against her.

The demon raised her hand and sent Dean flying away. Sam, Cas and Pete ran towards the party. Sam got thrown away by the red haired woman but Cas and Pete managed to get through. Pete engaged in fight with a fallen angel while Cas fought against a demon and succeeded in killing it. The chef had managed to kill the angel and obtain his blade. Dean had finally got up again but he was thrown again by the demon until Cas slashed her back.

Several angels and demons were know laying dead on the ground. Cas had managed to get close to the door of the water plan facility, after a silent exchange with Dean in which the hunter barely had to nod, they agreed on Cas entering the facility and stopping whoever was inside about to infect the water -if they hadn't done it already. The former angel had managed to sneak out and not be seen, or so he thought.

"Watch out!" shouted Pete.

Cas turned and saw a demon that was ready to stab him, thanks to Pete's warning he managed to kill her. Pete wasn't so lucky. Shouting to Cas had distracted him and allowed a fallen angel to stab him in the stomach. Pete fell dead to the floor but there was no time to shed tears for him.

The angel gone hunter opened the door and entered the facility. There was a big room with several doors that seemed to lead to offices, that at the moment, didn't matter to Cas. In the middle, there was big doors and a hallway. Castiel ran through it. He followed the signs and arrived to a little room . The room was almost empty, all it had was a manhole cover that Jehoel was having trouble removing.

"Stop!" shouted Cas drawing his blade firmly.

"Oh, you made it here," said Jehoel raising his head, "Right on time to save the day, aren't you, Castiel?" he said dropping the iron lid and taking out his angel blade.

"So this is what you have become?" asked Cas ignoring the other's comment, "Working with demons?"

"I don't think you are the right person to judge, brother," said Jehoel, they had started to walk in circles, glancing once in a while the body of the dead croat, "After all is nothing you hadn't done before. First, the whole free will, than the deal with Crowley. We're just following your footsteps."

"I never worked against humanity," argued Cas, his voice deep and serious.

"You didn't, did you? Forgive me if I remember wrong, brother, but weren't you the one who killed all those who thought differently than you, like those politicians?" when Cas remained in silence, Jehoel smiled and continued, "See, we're not doing anything that you hadn't done before."

"That's different. My judgment was... clouded," claimed Cas.

"Oh, but it is not so different. But then, maybe it is," agreed Jehoel, "after all I'm not a traitor to my own."

"And that involves working with demons?" asked Cas.

"It involves working with Lucifer," replied Jehoel.

Cas' eyes widened.

"He can help us, all he needs is a little help first," explained the fallen angel, "We help him getting rid of the humans, he helps us with restoring our Graces."

"You truly believe that Lucifer is going to help you? That he is so altruist?" Cas questioned him, "That he's going to pay attention to you now?"

"He. Will," Jehoel answered harshly.

"And how do you believe he's going to distinguish you from all the humans?"

"Because of this," said the fallen angel pushing up his shirt and reveling three number six in a circle joined together by the upper extreme.

"The Mark of the Devil," whispered Cas.

"That's right," smirked Jehoel, "and speaking of humans. How is your lover doing? I heard he's fine now. So what do you say if after I'm finished here, I pay him a little visit and I finish what I had started. If you are lucky you will able to watch again, Castiel."

Jehoel's goal was to disturb and unsettle Cas, to diminish his focus. What he was underestimating is that if you want to live you should never threaten the Winchesters in front of Castiel. The wayward angel jumped over him with precise movements. Jehoel didn't stand a chance.

With the fresh memories of the gunshot hitting Dean's face over and over, with the still recent feeling of Dean's bloody body on his lap, Cas pierced Jehoel's stomach. He made a straight slash up to the man's chest.

"You don't go near Dean Winchester," said Cas in a dangerous low tone.

When Cas got out of the facility he found out that Sam and Dean were barely holding it. The number of dead angels and demons on the floor was big. But they were five against two very tired hunters. Holding Jehoel's body by the hair, he shouted.

"Stop!" and the four still alive angels turned around, their eyes widened when they saw their dead leader, "This is what you're doing now? Working with demons, with Lucifer? Know now that you can't win. Continue this path and we will find you and kill you," to prove his point he let of Jehoel's body that fell heavily onto the ground.

The angels' fear was clear in their faces. Cas' tone remained them of when he had claimed himself to be God and killed a big fraction of the angels.

"If you wish to live, then leave now," commanded Castiel.

The four fallen angels started walking away slowly and ended up running. The demon, who found himself alone with the Winchester, left his meat suit.

"What was that?" asked Dean with apprehension, he remembered that Cas was Castiel, Angel of the Lord, he had seen Leviathan Cas, God Cas, but this... This version was new and he didn't like it.

"I stopped Jehoel from dropping a dead croatoan in the water flow," he explained, "We need to burn the body to impede the spread of the virus."

"Yeah..." agreed Sam, even if just to break the silence.

They burnt the croat 's body and all the others in silence.

When they were done, Cas headed to the backseat, but Sam stopped him.

"No, you go in front," said the tallest hunter, and before Dean could say something -as he definitely was going to-, he continued, "You know, there's something broken between you two, and that part I can get it. I'm complete tired of it, but I can get it. But, there's something broken inside both of you and right now," he paused, "I'm too tired to deal with you crap," he finished throwing his hands in the air.

He entered the vehicle and closed the door with a loud bang.

Dean and Cas said nothing.

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They hadn't noticed it, but the croat's body had formed a puddle of blood on the floor, and that puddle had found a path towards the manhole. A single drop fell down the wall of the hole, it went down slowly, the blood was getting dry and the fire on the surface didn't help. But it went down nevertheless.

When the drop of blood touched the water it disappeared, spreading invisible in the current.

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A/N: Okay...
So... Endverse!
Okay, we're not exactly there. But we're close. For once croatoans, demons...
But most important. Our Team Free Will is broken. Dean and Cas' relationship is broken since last chapter. But like Sam said, they are broken. Dean feels hopeless and he's scared, one of his deepest fears is becoming true, and he notices how he's slowly becoming 2014!Dean specially with his decisions regarding Daphne and Fred, and he hates and fears that. Then there's Cas, he's been broken since chapter who is broken since chapter 5, but he just continues cracking. This dangerous side, the one who will support Dean's decision to kill a little girl (he may have done it other times, he may have supported Dean anyway, but it has more of a cold blood thing to it), how he kills Jehoel and then uses his body. It's too cold blooded for our dear Cas, is like inside him he's so broken that he has stopped caring... Almost... If he continues this way he may try to find easiness into consuming certain things. Just saying...
And Sam... in many ways he's the least broken, but he's starting to feel alienated... and that's dangerous for him.
I had fun writing this chapter and creating so many OC, and killing them all... I wish I could have the time and ability to have explored them all. Pete was originally going to die in the explosion with Susan, but then, I thought that would disminish Susan's death and I didn't want that.
Anyway, I hope you liked it, and if you do, please comment. :)