On the road...
Bobby drove the Trans-Am from beside Dean as Angel sat in the back. She grimaced as she wiped the dried blood that had dripped from her ear.
Bobby looked at her from the rearview, "How ya feelin?"
Angel grimaced as she carefully leaned back, "My head's pounding and my ears have church bells in them but aside from that, peachy."
Dean sighed and pulled his phone out to dial Sam who immediately answered, "You're on speaker with Ang and Bobby. What are you doing?"
"Couldn't sleep, went to get a burger."
"In my car?"
"Sorry. Couldn't really take Angie's though so..." He cleared his throat, "What are you guys doing up anyway?"
"The three of us are gonna go grab a beer." Angel piped up as she leaned forward, signaling for them to go along with it, "Figured we'd let you know in case you came back before us."
"Alright, well, uh, spill some for me, huh?"
"Sure thing." Angel nodded, taking the phone from Dean, "See you later."
After she hung up Bobby eyed her curiously, "Why the hell didn't you tell him?"
"Because he'd just try to stop us."
Dean turned to her with raised eyebrows, "You wanna summon this thing now?"
Bobby sputtered, "You can't be serious!"
"As serious as i'll ever be. This is our only move, boys. We gotta do it. It's time we faced it head-on."
"Ang..." Dean countered, now unsure after what he just witnessed in the room, "This thing almost killed you just now. We don't have any idea what we're dealing with."
"That's why we've got to be ready for anything. Still got Ruby's knife?"
"Yeah..."
"Good."
Bobby shook his head at her, "This is a bad idea."
"Couldn't agree more." Dean agreed grimly, "She's right, though. What other choice do we have?"
"We could choose life."
"Look..." Angel eyed the two of them, "This thing is after me hardcore. That's obvious. There's nowhere i can hide so we can either wait for it to attack when we're all off guard again or we can go after it on our own terms."
Bobby still looked unconvinced and tense, "Then we could really use Sam on this."
"No. Leave him be." Angel dismissed, "He's better off that way. We can handle this."
Back inside Johnny Mac's Diner...
Sam snuck into the darkened diner after using his lock-picking tools. A song played softly on the jukebox in the otherwise quiet and deserted restaurant. He quietly made his way in and immediately saw the cook from earlier face-down on the floor. His hands were bloody and it was obvious he was dead. Sam crouched down and turned him over to reveal that his eyes were burned out and dry blood caked his cheeks. As Sam stood a different figure attacked him from behind. They grappled for a moment before Sam saw that it was the demon waitress from before. She too had empty burned out eye sockets and blood trickling down her face. She looked both terrifying and terrified.
Sam shoved her away from him with a grimace of disgust, "Your eyes."
"I can still smell your soul a mile away."
"It was here." His brows lifted, "You saw it."
She sobbed, "I saw it."
"What was it?"
"It's the end. We're dead. We're all dead."
Sam insisted, "What did you see?"
"Go to hell!"
"Funny. I was going to say the same thing to you."
Sam stepped back, planted his feet, and shut his eyes in concentration. He extended his right hand towards the demon and she heaved as she began to vomit black smoke into her hand. In seconds, the waitress had collapsed to the floor as the demon was sucked down into the Pit. Sam opened his eyes and crossed to the woman on the floor. To check her pulse,.
He sighed in disappointment when he felt nothing, "Damn it."
The kitchen door opened just before a woman walked out. The woman that was in his motel room earlier. Her presence wasn't a surprise to Sam as he stood up to meet her eye and share a smoldering look.
"Getting pretty slick there, Sam. Better all the time."
He looked down at the corpse as his face fell, "What the hell is going on around here, Ruby?"
"I wish I knew."
"We were thinking some high level demon pulled Angel out."
"No way." She dismissed, "Sam, human souls don't just walk out of Hell and back into their bodies easy. The sky bleeds, the ground quakes. It's cosmic. No demon can swing that. Not Lilith, not anybody."
"Then what can?"
"Nothing I've ever seen before."
Inside an abandoned warehouse...
Bobby drew a symbol with white spray paint on the cement floor. As he stood, he surveyed the entire floor, walls, and ceiling of the empty rectangular warehouse. Every inch was covered in all of the supernatural symbols they could find. Angel was finishing up one wall as Dean stood at a table setting up equipment.
"That's a hell of an art project you two have got going there."
Bobby nodded, "Traps and talismans from every faith on the globe."
"Not a bad place to start." Angel smirked as she shut the book she was looking at and put the spray bottle down, "This has to help us out somehow. How you doin?"
"Stakes, iron, silver, salt, knife. I mean, we're pretty much set to catch and kill anything I've ever heard of."
Bobby shook his head again with the same grim look as before, "This is still a bad idea."
"Bobby, we both heard you the first twelve times." Angel patted his shoulder, "But like i said, we're kind of backed into a corner here."
"Alright." Dean slapped his hands together, "What do you say we ring the dinner bell?"
Angel motioned in agreement as Bobby reluctantly nodded. He walked over to another desk and took a pinch of some powder from a bowl to sprinkle into a larger bowl. The substances then began to smoke as he chanted in Latin.
Back with Sam and Ruby...
"So." Ruby looked over at Sam from across the table they were now sitting at, "Million dollar question, are you going to tell Angel and Dean about what we're doing?"
"Yeah..." Sam nodded reluctantly, "I just gotta figure out the right way to say it." Ruby gave him a look, "I just need time, okay? That's all."
"Sam they're going to find out, and if it's not from you they're going to be pissed."
"Both of them are going to be pissed anyway." He dismissed, "I mean, Deans so hard headed about this psychic stuff he'll just try and stop me, and Angel still treats me like her six year old little brother."
"Look. Maybe I'll just take a step back for a while."
Sam frowned, "Ruby, you..."
"I mean, I'm not exactly in Dean or Angels fanclub. Especially Angel, but they are your brother and sister. I'm not going to come between you three."
"I don't know if what I'm doing is right. Hell, I don't even know if I trust you."
"Thanks."
"But what I do know is that I'm saving people. And stopping demons. And that feels good. I want to keep going."
Back with Angel, Dean and Bobby...
The three hunters were all seated on seperate tables, swinging their legs and looking bored.
Dean glared at Bobby, "You sure you did the ritual right?" Bobby glared right back, "Sorry. Touchy, touchy, huh?"
"Dean." Angel shook her head but couldn't help the smile that pulled, "I forgot just how annoying you get when you're bored."
Before he could comment, loud rattling shook the roof interrupting him. The hunters armed themselves with shotguns and took positions at the far end of the warehouse.
Dean let out a stiff laugh, "Wishful thinking, but maybe it's just the wind?"
Angel looked around at the commotion as she tightly gripped her shotgun, "Doubtful."
The door burst open just before a handsome man in a business suit and trench coat stalked inside. Castiel. Angel raised a brow, not expecting him to look quite so pleasant. The light bulbs above his head shattered in a shower of sparks as he passed them. As he approached, the three hunters all opened fire, but the shots didn't even slow him down. Dean took the demon knife as Castiel got closer and closer to his sister.
Angel tensed as she backed away from him, "Who the hell are you?"
Castiel stopped right in front of her, his eyes never leaving hers, "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition."
"Yeah, thanks for that by the way."
Dean then jumped forward and plunged the knife into his chest. Castiel looked down at the blade in unconcern before pulling it out, and dropping it to the floor. Behind him, Bobby made his attack. Without looking away from Angel, Castiel grabbed Bobby's weapon and used it to swing him around so he was face to face with the man. He touched Bobby on the forehead with his fingertips, sending the man crumpling to the ground before doing the same to Dean.
"We need to talk, Angel." Castiel's blue eyes snapped back to Angel's shocked green ones, "Alone."