Everyone is back. The Winchesters are no longer the only people on the planet. Yay.

Dean begins searching every lore book, every spell book, everything they have in the bunker for mentions of the Empty and how to bring someone back from there.

He prays – to Cas, to Jack, to anyone who'll listen.

He's never actually realised how much Cas meant to him.

Then, finally – a clue.

It's not a spell, nor is it a deal with a higher creature.

Actually, it's quite simple.

It's not like people often want to bring back angels or demons from the dead, especially not humans. So that's a loophole. When a human loves an angel or demon so much that they are willing to go through the darkest place in the universe for them, then they can bring them back.

Dean found this information on a handwritten note someone left in the back of an Enochian dictionary, and he isn't sure whether to trust it.

But he'll be damned if he's not going to take any chance he gets to save Cas.

He does exactly what the instructions say.

He sits down in his room, closes his eyes and thinks only of Castiel, how much he misses him and wants him back, everything he would do for him, has done for him.

When he opens his eyes again, he's not in his room anymore.

Everything is black. There is only darkness, and Dean struggles to see anything.

Still, he calls out: "Cas? You there?"

He calls: "Castiel? Where are you?"

Says his name, shouts it into the darkness.

There is no answer.

But there is something. A light, weak and flickering, but it's there.

It's moving towards Dean.

He just stands there, watching as it grows bigger. Then, when it's only a few feet away, he extends his arm. He touches it.

And then Cas is there.

Instead of touching the light, Dean is holding his hand now. And as they touch, a new light comes into existence, brighter and stronger than the one before. It guides them, out of the darkness, back into the real world, back into life.

Dean opens his eyes. He's back in his room, sitting on his bed. His eyes need a moment to adjust to the brightness of this world after all that darkness. Then, when he looks to the right, he sees Cas sitting there, still holding his hand.

Castiel, real and so, so alive.

Castiel, who gripped Dean tight and raised him from perdition, now saved by that very same man.

Alive.