In the bunker, while Sam and I were going over the computers, Mary and Bobby were going over weapons.

"Who goes to Duluth in October?" Bobby asked. "Sure Michael didn't touch down in Orlando?"

"Jo was pretty specific," Mary told him. "Duluth."

"Yeah, well, Angels ain't exactly known for their veracity," Bobby told her. Mary cleared her throat, looking from me to the doorway as Castiel walked in. Bobby looked at us. "No offense."

Castiel shook his head. "None taken. Ava and I tend to agree with you."

Mary handed a gun to Sam. "Here you go."

"Thanks," Sam told her.

"Hey, what's that?" Mary asked.

"So Sam and I've been searching through police reports in Duluth," I explained. "Cops just turned up a pile of corpses that was dumped near some train tracks just north of town and their eyes were burnt out."

"So Michael," Castiel realized. "We should go now."

"No, this isn't just Michael we're talking about," Sam told us.

"It's Dean," I finished.

"Yeah," Sam answered. "Cas, Ava, you know why you two, Ariel and Faith can't come with us, right?"

Castiel nodded. "Our Angelic presences would be sensed by Michael, thereby nullifying your hopes of a sneak attack."

"Yeah, sorry," Sam told us.

I nodded. "And you need us to stay here and babysit Nick, Kai and Jack."

Sam tilted his head at me. "It's not babysitting, Ava."

"Only in the sense that they're not infants, but they both have to be supervised," I replied. "Jack and Kai are lost without their Grace. Nick is... he's just a mess."

"Well, it--it's not his fault," Sam told me. "Ava, Nick was housing, you know. He--he deserves a shot at rebuilding his life."

I nodded in agreement. "And yet every time I look at him, all I can see is the supreme agent of evil."

Ariel, Faith, Jack and Kai walked in.

"You talking about our dad again?" Kai asked. "Look, we understand. Being around Nick, it's hard for us, too. And it's harder for you, Ava, because of what Lucifer did to your mind when you had the hex, so..."

"Ariel, Faith, we're going to need you to sit this mission out," Sam told them.

"We know," Ariel told us. "Michael can sense us if we come because of our power."

"It's not much of a sneak attack if the Archangel can sense the Nephilims, right?" Faith asked sarcastically.

"Right, so Ava and Cas are gonna stay with you two, Jack and Kai," Sam told them. "Not a permanent thing.

Jack sighed. "I know last time, Kai and I sucked when it mattered, and we need to improve. So, that's what we're gonna do."

I nodded. "All right. Okay." I nodded to Sam, Bobby and Mary. "Go ahead."

*      *      *      *      *

I had to bring a tray of food and drink to Nick, knocking on the door. "I brought you some food. Now that he's, uh, gone, you--you must remember to eat."

Nick nodded. "Right. Thanks." I put the tray down, but every time I looked at him, I flashed back to everything he had done, and because of the damage he had done to me because of the hex, having to turn away. "I'm not him, Octavia."

I sighed. "I know."

"But you still can't look at me," Nick pointed out.

"It's difficult," I told him. "You don't remember all the things you did in his thrall, but I do. He played with the hex on my mind, made it worse. To where it still scars me."

Nick sighed. "I know. I just don't--I don't get it. I don't understand why I would do something like that. I don't--I don't get how I would let Lucifer possess me."

I sighed, turning to face him. "You were in a lot of pain, and Lucifer saw vulnerability, and he--he exploited it."

"Is that what you tell yourself so you can be near me after what he did to you?" Nick asked.

"I guess so," I answered.

Nick nodded. "I just don't know what kind of pain would make me allow Lucifer to possess me."

"It was your family," I told him.

"My family?" Nick asked. "Sarah and Teddy?" I nodded. Nick seemed to remember in flashes, gasping. "Oh, my God. Who could do that? Who could do that?"

"A man broke in to your house, and you weren't there," I told him.

"That was no man," Nick told me. "That's not man. That's a monster. It's a monster, and then Lucifer found me and made me a monster, too. Oh, my God."

I didn't know how to help him, even though I wanted to, swallowing nervously in guilt and sympathy.

*      *      *      *      *

In the library, I walked in to see Castiel, Ariel, Faith, Jack and Kai there.

"Looks like about two centuries of biblical lore," Castiel told us. "Light reading."

"We're researching how long it takes Archangel Grace to replenish," Ariel explained.

"Well, Archangels being exceedingly rare, the data on that is woefully scant," Castiel pointed out.

"The books say it can take from a month to..." Faith trailed off.

I nodded. "A century. Yeah. Complicating factor being Jack and Kai's Human component, which slows the process."

"Kai, Jack, um, mourning what you've lost..." Castiel trailed off. "It's wasteful. Might be smarter to focus on what you still have."

"You don't understand what Kai and I are going through," Jack told us.

"Yes, we do, a little," Castiel told them. "At the time of the Great Fall, when Angels were banished from Heaven, I lost what I thought was everything. I had no Grace, I had no wings. I felt hopeless and useless."

"And you know what happened to my Grace, after what the British Men of Letters and their Witch did to me," I told them. "How they burned away at my Grace and my mind to made me want to hurt the two of you, hurt my family and other hunters. How hard it was to fight it. Ariel, Faith, when you and Jack and Kai were in the other world with Mary... you didn't see some of the things I did, that I wish I had never done. I can't take that back now."

"It wasn't your fault," Faith told me.

"I know," I told them. "Doesn't change the fact that I did it. You couldn't believe how that felt like. How it still does, when I know that some of it didn't go away. That I'm not completely healed."

Kai looked from Castiel to me. "What did you both have left after what happened to you? When you didn't have us?"

"Well, uh..." Castiel trailed off. "I had Sam and Dean and Ava. Ava had all of us, too. But we had something else that was extremely helpful. We had ourselves. Just the basic us, as, uh, as Dean would say, without all the bells and whistles. You know, Sam and Dean, they weren't born with their expertise. They've been at it since they were children. Failing, winning, developing over the years. Patience, persistence, those are skills, too. The past, where you come from, that's important, but it is not as important as the future and where you're going."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're talking to Faith and me, too, and not just Jack and Kai?" Ariel asked.

"Because we are," I answered. "Faith, Ariel, you've both changed so much after what happened, and you had to because of that war. How worried you were to not be able to heal me and my mind and my Grace when you were gone, having to fight against Michael for months over there, and to come home and think it was over, just so Michael could take Dean, your uncle, from you. Like Cas said, the past, where you come from, that's important, what you went through is important. And yes, you changed. But the future that is even more important, as to where you're going, how you're going to grow and change again... you can be better than healthier and more healed both in your mind and personalities than you are now."

"So we won't have to be this way forever?" Faith asked.

"No," I answered. "You won't." I looked at Jack and Kai as well. "None of you will."

Ariel, Faith, Jack and Kai all exchanged a look, very thoughtful.

*      *      *      *      *

I walked into the library where Nick was looking up information on his family while Castiel kept an eye on him, on the phone. "That doesn't make any sense, Sam. I've never heard of an interaction between an Archangel and a Vampire, certainly not in this universe. And... why would Michael be killing them? I mean, they're not a threat to him. Yeah, okay. Well, just let me know what you find out." I hung up. "Cas? Is he, uh..."

Nick was very angry, manic. "Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing. There's no information. There's no mention of my wife and son past the year they were... when they died. There--there's nothing about the case being solved. Nothing!"

Castiel was surprised, concerned and sympathetic. "Oh, I'm sorry. We--we didn't know that."

Nick stood. "Castiel, Octavia, if I were around, I would have been on those cops every single day. But I was out of my head with grief. I said yes to Lucifer. I was a coward, and now--" Castiel moved to put a hand on Nick's shoulder to comfort him and calm him down. Nick surged up, snapping his fingers. "Don't."

Castiel backed away, hands raised. Nick looked at his hand. Castiel and I looked at him suspiciously.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?" Nick asked.

"What went through your head just now?" I asked.

Nick shrugged. "Um, I don't know. Nothing. What are you trying to get at?"

"Even though he's departed, there may be some of his influence still within you," Castiel told him. "Just..." He reached out to lay his hand on Nick's chest, a look of concentration and concern crossing his face. I looked at him worriedly. Castiel removed his hand. "Lucifer may have inflicted more damage on your psyche than we suspected."

"I don't have time for this, Castiel," Nick told him.

"Nick..." I trailed off.

Nick walked past me. "I'm not letting this go, Octavia. I'm gonna find out who killed my family."

I turned after him. "And then what?"

Nick left the room.

*      *      *      *      *

Castiel and I were in the library, watching Nick.

Nick was pacing, on the phone. "Detective, my wife and son were murdered in Pike Creek, Delaware. You're a police lieutenant in Pike Creek Delaware. If you can't help me, who can? Hello?" He hung up. "You gotta be... Castiel? Octavia? You know what a cold case is?"

"It's--" Castiel started.

"It's a case too unimportant for anybody to care about," Nick told us. "My wife and son are dead. Gone. Forever. My life is gone with them, and, uh, nobody cares. These cops don't care."

"I'm sorry," Castiel told him. "That sounds very difficult."

Nick nodded. "Difficult. Yeah, you know what's difficult? No evidence. There's no fingerprints, there's no DNA. I mean, how does that even happen? I mean, there was a witness who came forward and said they saw someone coming out of the house, and then they said they didn't see anything at all, and the case died. Like everything else."

"Nick, you, on the other hand, you've been given a second chance," I told him. "You're not dead."

"You don't understand," Nick told us.

"Oh, we do," I told him.

"Why, because your bodies were stolen?" Nick asked.

"One of the reasons, yes," I answered.

"What's the other?" Nick asked. "Your hex?"

"That, and because both of us are occupying someone else's other bodies," I answered. "All Angels have to, in order to walk the Earth. My vessel was Alyssa Rhodes."

"Mine was Jimmy Novak," Castiel told him.

Nick scoffed. "Occupy. Sounds like a cleaned up way of staying steal. And, uh, Jimmy and Alyssa? Is that their names? They all right with that?"

"Yes, they were," Castiel answered.

"Were?" Nick repeated.

Castiel nodded. "Jimmy and Alyssa are dead."

Nick shook his head. "Castiel, Octavia, you're just stone cold body snatchers. You're no different than Lucifer."

I sighed, looking away. "I--I need to look in on Ariel, Faith, Jack and Kai." I walked past Nick, but stopped before I got to the door, turning to face him and Castiel. "Alyssa was a teenager, 18 at the most, locked in the basement of her father's home for his own pleasure and needs, chained up and starved, isolated from everyone." Nick turned to face me in surprise. "She was about to kill herself when I found her. She said yes in a heartbeat because she wanted to help, even though she knew the risks, and she didn't care about what happened to her because her life was already a living hell. She just wanted it to be over."

"And you know, in all my thousands of years, what happened to Jimmy Novak and his family are my greatest regret," Castiel told him.

I left the library to go check on Ariel, Faith, Jack and Kai.

*      *      *      *      *

I walked into a room where the people in the bunker used it to train to fight, seeing that Ariel and Faith were training. "Hey. Where's Jack and Kai?" They didn't answer at first, looking at me sheepishly. "Ariel? Faith?"

"Uh, we were training with Jack and Kai, and then they asked if they could leave," Faith explained.

"Leave where?" I asked.

"Mom, it's okay," Ariel told me. "They know to pray to me and Faith if anything happens, but it won't. Because they're just going to see Kelly Kline's parents. Jack and Kai's grandparents. They got to thinking about the past, and since they can't talk to Kelly..."

"They wanted to talk to their only blood family left," I finished. "Ariel, Faith, we can't just leave them out there."

"And we won't," Faith told me. "We figured that they just needed to talk to their grandparents alone for a little bit."

"Yeah, and what are they explaining to them about their situation?" I asked.

"Well, Jack and Kai aren't saying that they're their grandsons, if that's what you mean," Faith answered. "They're just saying that they used to be co-workers with Kelly."

"It was my idea for the co-worker cover story," Ariel explained.

"All right, well, I'll tell Cas where they are," I told them. "He'll go get them but give them some time. It's a risk to go there, but I admit, they needed it. Cas will be frustrated, but he'll understand, too. And then he can talk to them like he's so good at doing." Ariel and Faith nodded in agreement. I looked at them in concern, walking closer. "What about you two? You doing better?"

"Not really," Ariel answered.

"But we did take what you and Cas said to heart," Faith mused. "It'll be a while before we can change back, though."

I shook my head. "No, no one expects you to change back. We just hope that whatever happens, you two can find someway to be happy again. Not so sad or angry all the time."

"This coming from you, since that's basically all you were during the hex?" Ariel asked.

I chuckled. "I'm getting better, aren't I?"

Faith smiled slightly. "Yeah."

"Come here," I told them.

Ariel, Faith and I embraced each other tightly, sighing.

"I wish we could've gone with Dad, Grandma and Bobby to go look for Michael and save Uncle Dean," Ariel admitted.

"Me too," Faith agreed.

"Yeah, so do I," I confessed. "But Sam was right. Michael would've sensed us and it would have ruined everything. We'll just have to see what happened when Sam gets home."

Ariel and Faith nodded in agreement, all of us hoping for the best about getting Dean back and stopping Michael soon.