Warning: Violence. Death. Angst.

Bamby

DPOV

Standing at the cart again, I lifted Ruby's knife from the assortment of tools and weapons.

Alastair's eyes were on it in an instant. He let out a light chuckle. "There's that little pig-poker. I wondered where it went." I dipped a ladle into the bowl of holy water, which I then poured over the blade as Alastair watched. "Do you really think this is gonna fix you? Give you closure? That is sad. That's really sad. Sad, sad."

Not responding, I turned without looking him in the eye, focusing on the job at hand, blocking out all emotions as I turned to autopilot, re-enacting everything I'd done in Hell for years. Using everything he'd taught me, on him.

Stopping in front of him, I waited a moment before driving the knife into his gut, agonizingly slow. I listened as his flesh sizzled and he grunted out noises of pain.

"I carved you into a new animal, Dean." He struggled. "There is no going back."

Leaning in closer, I grinned. "Maybe you're right. But now it's my turn to carve," with that, I drew the knife in deeper.

"No!"

Leaving the blade in there a moment longer, I then slid it out of him just as slowly as I'd pushed it in. His head fell forward. Grabbing his face, I forced his head back up, which had him laughing once more.

"Now it's your professionalism that I respect."

Disgusted, I turned away, moving to the cart to grab the bowl of holy water. Walking back to Alastair, I threw the water in his face. On contact, his skin began to sizzle as the water screamed, Alastair gargling in pain.

"Who's murdering the angels?" I asked, ignoring his chokes.

When he didn't respond, I moved back to the cart, filled the bowl up again, walked over to Alastair once more, and threw the water on his face. He screamed as his skin sizzled and I watched, face void of any emotion.

Leaning over as much as he could while chained, Alastair spat out a mixture of blood and holy water. "You're just not getting deep enough. Well, you lack the resources. Reality is just, I don't know, too concrete up here." He shook his head as I moved to the cart again. "Honestly, Dean… you have no idea how bad it really was, and what you really did for us."

I glanced at him for a moment as I poured some salt into an old piping bag. "Shut up."

Ignoring me, he went on. "The whole bloody thing, Dean. The reason Lilith wanted you there in the first place."

"Well, then I'll just make you shut up." Walking over to him, I grabbed his chin once more.

"Lilith really-"

Before he could go on, I forced his mouth open, lifted the bag to his lips, and let the salt fill his mouth and pour down his throat as he tried to scream.

EPOV

"Don't really blame you guys. Not like I'm good for anything… maybe leaving me here is for the best. Maybe if I die of starvation, I won't come back," I wondered. To make things worse, I actually sounded hopeful…

"Hello Elizabeth."

I gasped, looking over to my right, seeing Anna stand in the middle of the living room, a gentle and kind smile on her face.

Anna's eyes scanned me, her smile falling as she really took in the sight before her. "Why are you covered in blood?"

"My now very ex-boyfriend thought it would be fun to stab me so he could get away after I found out he's a demon… which is before he forced me to drink his blood. But that was after he'd already been drugging me with pills made from his blood."

She looked down at the ground, guilt in her eyes. "I didn't know…"

"But you do now?" I groaned, moving to sit up.

"I heard-"

"Let me guess. Through angel radio?" I laughed harshly. "When? How many of you guys know?"

"Not everyone has heard the news yet. I only heard it moments before I arrived here."

"Great," I sighed, hating this situation more and more with each passing second.

Moving around the coffee table, Anna scanned my body as if trying to see where she could help me. But it was obvious what the problem was. She couldn't heal the withdrawal symptoms of the demon blood, and there was nothing left to heal when it came to my stab wound. I was just going to have to ride the rest of it out.

"So, that means all you guys know." I sighed. "Please tell me you're not here to just say good bye and leave me to die."

"You prayed. I answered."

I looked to her with hope in my eyes. "So, you're going to help me?"

"Yes." Once again, she answered as if it were that simple.

But it wasn't. At least to me it wasn't. "Why?"

Frowning, clearly not understanding my question, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Why do you want to help me? I'm not Dean. I'm not a Winchester. I'm just background noise. What do you get out of helping me?"

"Maybe I just want to pay you back after you were there for me," she responded, the kind smile back on her face. "Now, are you going to let me help you, or not?" she asked, reaching out to offer me her hand.

I didn't have to think about what I was going to do next. The moment she offered to help, I knew there was no way I was turning her down. Without further hesitation, I lifted my hand and placed it in hers, already thanking her in my mind.

DPOV

Trying to breath, scream, and struggle, Alastair leaned forward as he spat out a mixture of salt and blood… though mainly blood. "Something caught in my throat," he croaked, looking down at what he'd spat out. "I think it's my throat."

"Well, strap in, 'cause I'm just starting to have fun," I assured him, turning for the cart again.

"You know, it was supposed to be your father," he started as I poured some more holy water. "He was supposed to bring it on. But, in the end, it was you."

"Bring what on?" I asked, not missing a word he'd said.

But he didn't answer of course. "Oh, every night, the same offer, remember? Same as your father," he explained while I shook some salt onto the blade of Ruby's knife. "And finally, you said, 'Sign me up'. Oh, the first time you picked up my razor, the first time you sliced into that weeping bitch…" I turned to him, seeing him smirk. "That was the first seal."

Walking closer, I refused to let him see how his words had affected me, because it I'm being honest, he'd struck a nerve.

"You're lying."

"And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. As he breaks, so shall it break," he recited. "We had to break the first seal before any others. Only way to get the dominoes to fall, right? Topple the one at the front of the line."

I had to turn away before he could see me react. Before he could see the broken look on my face as I realised that this was all my fault. Everything. The apocalypse, the angels, Lilith, Lucifer. Everything that was happening and was coming, it was all my fault…

"When we win, when we bring on the apocalypse and burn this earth down, we'll owe it all to you, Dean Winchester."

I closed my eyes, trying to get control again.

"Believe me, son, I wouldn't lie about this. It's kind of a religious sort of thing with me."

Taking a deep breath, I looked down at Ruby's knife which I still held, getting a hold of myself again. "No. I don't think you are lying. But even if the demons do win… you won't be there to see it."

Ready to finish him off, I went to turn, but as I did, I froze. I wasn't sure how, but Alastair was no longer chained. No longer trapped. No, now he stood in front of me, barely a step between us, nothing left to keep me protected from his wrath.

"You should talk to your plumber about the pipes." He grinned before lifting his fist to my face in a hard punch that had me fall to the ground in an instant.

Reaching down, he grabbed my shirt and lifted me off the ground to punch me over and over again until I could no longer feel the hits. The pain throbbed in my face constantly, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I was out like a light.

Letting me drop, he then grabbed my throat and lifted me off the ground before pressing me against the hexacle he'd been chained to moment ago. "You got a lot to learn, boy. So I'll see you back in class bright and early Monday morning."

Suddenly, he let me go as he turned to see Castiel running toward him, Ruby's knife in hand. The knife plunged into Alastair, but did nothing to stop him as both the angel and demon began to fight. Though I didn't see much of it before everything went black as I passed out.

SPOV

As I hurried into the back room of the abandoned building, I found Alastair chanting, his hand wrapped around Castiel's throat as he held the angel against a pillar and off the ground. Castiel was clearly losing, his eyes and mouth glowing bright blue…

I raised one hand to Alastair and squeezed, causing him to stop. Castiel slumped to the ground as I threw Alastair against the wall.

"Stupid pet tricks." Alastair glared at me.

"Who's murdering the angels? How are they doing it?" I asked, moving to stand in front of him, though a few steps away.

"You think I'm gonna tell you?"

"Yeah, I do." I twisted my hand, causing his eyes to roll back as he choked, clearly in pain. "How are the demons killing angels?"

"I don't know," he struggled.

I scoffed, twisting my hand a little more. "Right."

Shaking and struggling, Alastair tried to fight my hold. "It's not us," he choked out. "We're not doing it."

"I don't believe you."

"Lilith is not behind this." Fighting against me, he grinned, shaking his head. "She wouldn't kill seven angels. Oh, she'd kill a hundred… a thousand," he answered, so I let my hand drop, no longer hurting him put still holding him. He shook his head at me. "Oh, go ahead. Send me back, if you can."

It was my turn to grin. "I'm stronger than that now. Now I can kill."

Lifting my hand again, I concentrated. Soon enough, gold light began to flare as Alastair let out a pained and blood curdling scream. Just as suddenly, he fell silent and still. Letting him go, I watched as his body slid down the wall and to the ground, now dead.

…

I sat next to Dean as he lay in a hospital bed, breathing few a tube, an Iv drip in his arm, bandages all over. It was pretty bad. I mean, almost-lost-his-life bad. Even now, he was on close watch, just in case, which didn't sit right with me. There had to be something that could be done…

As if on cue, Castiel appeared in the door way and paused for a single moment as I turned to him, before he continued down the hall, knowing I would be close behind.

Once I was out of Dean's room and only a few steps from Castiel, he opened his mouth to speak- probably to scold me for what I'd done. "Sam-"

But before he could say anything else, I cut him off, gesturing to Dean's room, "Get in there and heal him. Miracle. Now."

"I can't."

"You and Uriel put him in there-"

"No," he tried to argue, but I just went on as if he didn't speak.

"-because you can't keep a simple devil's trap together."

"I don't know what happened," he insisted, almost snapping back at me. "That trap," he sighed, looking away for a moment before turning back to me, "it shouldn't have broken. I am sorry."

But I didn't care about his empty apologies. They weren't going to help Dean. "This whole thing was pointless. You understand that? The demons aren't doing the hits. Something else is killing your soldiers."

"Perhaps Alastair was lying," he suggested, clearly in denial.

"No, he wasn't," I told him with complete confidence, because I knew, without a doubt, that Alastair hadn't lied.

Having nothing more to say, I turned for Dean's room and walked off, leaving Castiel there, needing to be by my brother's side.

EPOV

Anna had taken us to Bobby's. I wasn't sure how she knew he wasn't there, but I was thankful that he wasn't. I didn't want to have to explain who Anna was, why I was in the state I was in, and where Tristan was. If I didn't have to tell anyone that for a while, I'd be pretty happy.

Throughout the day, Anna had taken care of me. It was oddly nice, like having my own little angel sitting on my shoulder, guarding and guiding me. I never had to ask for anything, she always seemed to know what I needed or wanted. Even if that was some alone time. She would just get up and go for a moment or two before coming back once I was wanted or needed her again.

When the sun had set, and it was getting pretty close to midnight, she disappeared. I mean, literally. One moment she was in the kitchen making dinner, and then she was just gone.

It took a few minutes before she was back. By then, I'd gotten up and continued on with the cooking, eaten some food and started the dishes.

"Elizabeth, you really shouldn't." She came to take over once more.

But I shook my head at her, refusing to give in. "I'm fine, Anna, really," I insisted, despite how awful I felt.

It wasn't even the withdrawals that were making me feel this way like they had for the last couple of weeks. No, they were gone because I'd let Tristan poison me again. The reason I felt so crappy was because I'd let him do it to me. Knowingly. I let him feed me his blood, and that fact was wrapping me up in unimaginable guilt.

"No. You're not," she sighed, gently taking the plate I'd been washing.

Taking a step back, I let her finish the dishes as I leaned against the bench, folding my arms over my chest to hug myself. "I'm not sick, you know. I've had some recently…" I shrugged lightly, looking to the ground. "I feel fine."

Without looking at me, she nodded. "I know you don't feel sick, not like you have lately, but there are other ways you can feel ill. You can be sick with guilt, for instance." Glancing at me then, she gave a pointed look before going back to work. "And you might have had… that stuff, but it won't be enough to keep you going. Not forever. You will start to feel the way you have for the last few weeks, and the longer you go without the worse it will get."

She was right. I knew she was. What I'd experienced, that had only been the beginning. I knew this time around, things were going to be harder. Things were going to hurt more. But it's a price I'm willing to pay.

…

After finishing with the dishes, Anna and I had moved to sit in the Bobby's office. We'd spent some time talking, and I found that despite her being an angel, she was actually pretty cool. But despite that, there was something still bugging me.

"Why are you here, Anna?"

She looked taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what is an angel on the run doing here, cooking and cleaning for a human poisoned by demon blood. It's not like I've done much for you, if we're being honest."

"You don't think you've done anything for me?" She frowned, both surprised and confused. "I was a stranger, and you welcomed me into your home. You didn't judge me. You brought me in and took care of me when I needed help. And when I remembered who I was and went looking for my grace, you came with me despite the fact that there was obvious tension in your life." She offered me a kind smile. "So, doing some dishes and cooking some food is the least I can do."

Slowly, I returned her smile, feeling a little better. Knowing that she wasn't doing this out of pity eased some of the guilt resting on my shoulders, which allowed me to breathe a little easier.

I was just about to reach for my cup of tea, when Anna suddenly stood. I looked up at her with worried eyes. "What's wrong?"

"It's Castiel, he needs my help," she answered before she got a look in her eyes that told me she was about to disappear.

But before she could, I reached out to stop her. "Take me with you."

She looked down at my hand which was wrapped around her wrist. "Elizabeth…"

It was obvious that she didn't want to take me. But if Castiel needed her help then something must be really bad, and the last thing I wanted was for Anna to be put in danger without backup of her own. I may just be a human, but I was currently a human jacked up on demon blood, so I wasn't as useless as I looked.

"Okay. Just hold on," she told me before we were gone.

…

I didn't have time to take in my surroundings. The moment we appeared in our new setting my eyes landed on Castiel. He was kneeling, with blood coming from his nose and mouth as he looked up at Uriel.

"You can't win, Uriel. I still serve God."

Uriel's usually impeccable suit was now covered in dust, and had a number of tears in it. He reached forward, wrapping his hand around Castiel's throat. "You haven't even met the man. There is no will." He punched Castiel. "No wrath." He punched him again. "No God."

Before Uriel could make another move, I looked to a short, silver sword looking thing that lay on the ground. Raising my hand as I stepped forward, I used my mind to will the weapon to my grasp before I stabbed him in his back right though his chest.

Anna- who had stepped forward at the same time and now stood behind his other shoulder- spoke, "Maybe. Or maybe not. But there's still us."

I pulled the blade out and took a step back, watching as Uriel collapsed to the ground where the remains of what appeared to be a fresh devil's trap lay.

"Look away!" Anna yelled just as Uriel began to scream.

I turned as quickly as I could, covering my face and closing my eyes and a bright light exploded out of Uriel. Once the light was gone, I uncovered my face carefully, and turned to see seared wings on floor across the devil's trap.

"Elizabeth?" I turned to see Castiel now standing, looking from me to Anna, clearly confused.

Without saying a word, the two angels appeared to have a conversation- one I wasn't privy too. A moment or so later, Anna turned to me, a small and sad smile on her face… and then she was gone.

My heart leapt in my chest, out of fear… I might have just saved him, but that doesn't mean Castiel suddenly liked me. I knew what I was and what the angels thought of me. I had no doubt in my mind that I was about to be punished for my sins.

But I was surprised when he rested a gentle hand on my shoulder. Looking into his eyes I could see both gratitude and pity. Then, before I could stop him, he reached forward and pressed two fingers to my forehead, knocking me unconscious in an instant.

DPOV

"Are you all right?"

I looked to my left as best as I could, opening my eyes to see Castiel sitting in the seat next to my bed. My hospital bed.

"No thanks to you," I croaked, trying to speak as best as I could.

There was a pause before he spoke again. "You need to be more careful."

"You need to learn how to manage a damn devil's trap," I countered.

"That's not what I mean." He took a moment before adding, "Uriel is dead."

I didn't feel bad for the guy, I mean Uriel was a dick. But it wasn't exactly good news. "Was it the demons?"

"It was disobedience," Castiel answered simply. "He was working against us."

I knew there were hundreds of questions I could have asked him then. I probably should have asked him to explain what that meant. But I didn't want, or need, to know. There were more pressing things I needed him to tell me. Like if Alastair had been telling the truth or not.

"Is it true?" I asked. "Did I break the first seal? Did I start all this?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation. "When we discovered Lilith's plan for you, we laid siege to hell and we fought our way to get to you before you-"

"Jump-started the apocalypse," I finished for him, my tone a harsher than normal.

"We were too late."

"Why didn't you just leave me there, then?"

"It's not blame that falls on you, Dean, it's fate. The righteous man who begins it is the only one who can finish it," he told me as if it were written somewhere. "You have to stop it."

"Lucifer? The apocalypse? What does that mean?" I asked, needing to know exactly what I'm supposed to do. But when he didn't answer, and he silence grew, I just knew he was about to bail. "Hey! Don't you go disappearing on me, you son of a bitch. What does that mean!"

I knew he hadn't gone. I could still feel his presence. Yet he didn't answer right away. It took him another moment or so before he spoke again. But all I got was, "I don't know."

"Bull!"

"I don't," he insisted. "Dean, they don't tell me much. I know our fate rests with you."

"Well, then you guys are screwed. I can't do it, Cas. It's too big. Alastair was right. I'm not all here. I'm not- I'm not strong enough. Well, I guess I'm not the man either of our dads wanted me to be. Find someone else," I told him as I began to cry, unable to stop myself. "It's not me."

Bamby