( MEN OF LETTERS )

DINER
[ ☼ ]

Henry is sitting at a table holding the photograph with Elena. Dean and Sam are standing at the counter. "Driver's license says he's Henry Winchester from Normal, Illinois. He knows Dad's birthday, the exact place where he was born. Dude, that's our grandfather." Sam says.

"I'm just saying before we break out the warm and toasties, let's not forget that, uh, H.G. Wells over there left Dad high and dry when he was a kid." Dean says.

"But maybe he didn't run out on Dad – I mean, not on purpose. Maybe he time-traveled here and, I don't know, got stuck." Says Sam.

"Yeah, well, either way, Dad hated the son of a bitch." Dean says.

"And Dad made up for that how? By being father of the year?" Asks Sam.

A Waitress sets trays of food down in front of Dean and Sam. "Here you go." She says.

"Thanks." Dean says. "Look, Dad had his issues, okay, but he was always there for us. I freaking hate time-travel, man." Dean and Sam carry the trays of food to the table where Henry and Elena are sitting and sit down across the table from them.

"How you doing?" Sam asks.

"I'll be fine. After all, despite everything, I've just met my grandsons and granddaughter, haven't I?" Henry says and holds out a hand to Sam. "Henry Winchester. It's a pleasure."

Elena clears her throat. "I'm actually dating one of your grandsons." She says.

"I assume you're dating the respectable one." Henry says and smiles.

"No we're not together." Sam says.

"Actually no, I'm dating the un-respectable one." Elena says.

"I mean we were together..." Sam starts.

"But not anymore...we broke up." Says Elena.

"He doesn't care about our personal lives." Dean says annoyingly.

Sam shakes Henry's hand. "Sam." He says.

"Hello, Sam." Henry holds out his hand to Dean. Dean picks up a basket of food from the tray in front of Sam and sets it down in front of Henry.

"Dinner." Dean says and Elena kicks him under the table. "Ow!"

"This is Dean and Elena Gilbert." Sam says.

Henry looks confused. "You wouldn't have a grandfather named Peter Gilbert by any chance?" He asks.

"Uh, I don't think so." She says.

"Right." Henry says.

"Well, this has been touching. How about we figure out how to clean up your mess, huh?" Dean asks.

"Abaddon. Yes. She must be stopped."

"How come she didn't die when I stabbed her?" Asks Dean.

"Because demons can't be killed by run-of-the-mill cutlery. At the very least, you'd need an ancient demon-killing knife of the Kurds."

Dean takes his knife partway out of his jacket. "That's what this is." He says.

"Where'd you get that?" Henry asks.

Dean shoves the knife back into his jacket. "Demon gave it to me. We've been around this block so many times." He says.

"Now, that portal or whatever it was you came through – is it still open?" Asks Elena.

"I highly doubt it. Why?"

"I'm just thinking if we can't kill this Abaddon –" She starts.

"–maybe we can shove her back where she came from. How did you do it?" Dean asks.

"It's a blood sigil. Blood leads to blood. Or their next of kin." Henry says.

"But Abaddon came through it, also, right? So can you create this blood sigil again?" Asks Sam.

"My blood, an angel feather, tears of a dragon, a pinch of the sands of time – I – I would need those and... at least a week for my soul to recharge, but, yes, it's possible."

"You tapped the power of your soul to get here? I thought only angels could do that." Sam says.

"You should know this. What level are you two?" Henry asks.

"What level?" Dean asks.

"Level of knowledge. You're Men of Letters, correct?" Henry asks and Sam and Dean look at each other.

"I'm a little rusty on my boy bands. Men of what?" Asks Dean.

"Men of Letters, like your father, who taught you our ways."

"Our father taught us how to be hunters." Sam says.

Henry laughs. "You're not. Are you? Hunters? Well, hunters are... Hunters are apes. You're supposed to – you're legacies." He says.

"Legacies of what?"

STREET
[ ☼ ]

The Impala is parked on the same street we saw in 1958. The businesses now include an antiques store and a shop called "nu" offering salads and pita bread. Henry gets out of the back seat, Sam, Elena and Dean get out of the front seats and they walk down the street. Henry stops outside number 242.

"What's going on here?" He asks. The sign above the door reads "Astro Comics." The symbol is still visible carved into the door, but it is partly worn away. Henry touches it. "No."

"All right, well, this was enlightening." Dean claps his hands once. "Let's hit the road, huh?"

"Give him a minute, Dean." Sam says.

"We just spent four hours driving, okay? All he did was stare out the window and request Pat Boone on the radio. He had his time." Dean says.

"It's just a facade, a way to rook our enemies into believing we are housed elsewhere." Says Henry.

"Okay, enough with the decoder talk. How about you tell us what this whole "Men of Letters" business is, or you're on your own."

"It's none of your concern." Henry says.

"Why, because we're hunters? What do you have against us?" Asks Dean.

"Aside from the unthinking, unwashed, shoot-first-and-don't-bother-to-ask-questions-later part, not much, really."

"You know what? Wait a second. We're also John's children." Sam says.

"You're more than that, actually. My father and his father before him were both Men of Letters, as John and you two should have been." Henry says.We're preceptors, beholders, chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters – the very elite. They do the rest."

"So you're like Yodas to our Jedis." Dean says and Henry looks uncomprehending. "Never mind. You'll get there."

"Okay, but if you guys were such a big deal, then why haven't we – or anyone we know – ever heard of you?" Asks Sam.

"Abaddon." Henry opens the door and walks inside. They follow.

ASTRO COMICS
[ ☼ ]

"Henry. Why? Why'd she do it?" Sam asks.

Henry holds up the small wooden box carved with the symbol. "I think for this." He says.

"Okay, what's that?" Asks Sam.

"I wish I knew." Henry puts the box back into his pocket. "Abaddon attacked us the night of my final initiation. All secrets were to be revealed then."

"Let me get this straight. You traveled through time to protect something that does you don't know what from a demon that you know nothing about?" Dean asks and Henry looks at him, then walks down the hallway further into the store. Dean spreads his hands.] Good."

Henry enters a room and stops some distance from the store counter, behind which is a Young Woman in black who is wearing a studded leather collar. Dean, Elena and Sam come up behind him.

"Hand me your... walkie-talkie." Henry says.

"You mean my phone?" Sam asks.

"Even better." Henry holds Sam's phone up to his mouth. "Operator, I need Delta 457."

"Who are you not calling?" Dean asks.

"Our emergency number." Henry says.

"Yeah. Not anymore." Dean hands the phone back to Sam.

"They can't all be gone. There must be another elder out there who can help us figure out how to stop Abaddon and what to do with the box."

Dean turns to the Young Woman behind the counter. "Hey, uh, hi. Can we hijack your computer for a hot second?" He asks.

Henry laughs. "Like you could fit a computer in this room." He says.

"Sure."

"Thanks." Dean turns the laptop on the counter around. "Sam."

"Yep. All right, um... give me a name – anybody who, uh, might have been there that night – one of those elders." Sam says.

"Um... Ackers, David. Larry Ganem."

Sam enters the names into a search engine. "Um, Ted –" Henry says.

"Okay, here it is. Um, August 12, 1958." Sam says. "A tragic fire at a gentlemen's club. Uh, 242 Gaines Street."

"This is 242 Gaines Street. But that was no fire." Henry says. The laptop shows a newspaper article from August 12, 1958 titled "Tragic Fire at Gentlemen's Club, 4 Dead."

"Larry Ganem, David Ackers, Ted Bowen, and Albert Magnus – all deceased." Sam says.

"Albert Magnus." Henry says.

"He a friend of yours?" Asks Dean.

"Even better."

ROAD
[ ☾]

The Impala drives along a road past a cemetery.

CEMETERY
[ ☾]

Henry, Sam, Elena and Dean walk in the cemetery. Sam and Dean hold flashlights. "These were my friends, my mentors, our last defense against the Abaddons of the world." Henry says.

Dean shines his flashlight on a headstone. "Here's your buddy Albert Magnus." He says.

"Albertus Magnus. He was hardly a buddy. He was the greatest alchemist of the middle ages." Says Henry.

"Okay, so why is he buried here?" Sam asks.

"He's not. His was the alias we'd use when going incognito. I believe someone planted his name in that article... so that if a Man of Letters came looking for answers, he'd know something was amiss."

"So someone wanted you to come to this grave." Sam says.

"The question is why."

Dean shines his flashlight on the unicursal hexagramsymbol, which is carved into the headstone. "What is this?" He asks.

"Our crest. The Aquarian Star, representing great magic and power. They say it stood at the gates of Atlantis itself." Says Henry.

"Hmm. It's on all the tombstones except for this one – uh, Larry Ganem." Sam shines his flashlight on a headstone that reads: Larry Ganem March 23rd 1926 August 12th 1958

Henry crouches down in front of the headstone, which has a different symbol carved into it. "The Haitian symbol for speaking to the dead. This is the message. You boys ever exhume a body?" He says. Dean, Elena and Sam look at each other.

ASTRO COMICS
[ ☾]

The Young Woman is leaning over the customer side of the counter. Abaddon walks up behind her, still wearing the bloodstained evening dress. "Love what you've done with the place." She says.

"Uh, wrong night. Carrie screening's on Sunday. I dig your costume, though." The Young Woman says and Abaddon puts a hand on the her neck. "What are you doing?"

Abaddon breathes black smoke into the her mouth. "Show me what you've seen." She says. The Young Woman's eyes turn cloudy gray and we see flashbacks of Sam, Henry, Elena and Dean in the store.

"Can we hijack your computer?"

"Give me a name."

"Ackers, David. Larry Ganem."

"Tragic fire."

"That was no fire."

"Albert Magnus."

"Thanks."

Still in the flashback, we see the laptop being turned around. One of the open windows is the McLean County obituary search results for Larry Ganem. The black smoke then flows from the her mouth back into Abaddon's.

"Please don't hurt me!" Abaddon smiles. The Woman is wearing a black T-shirt with a pink picture of a high-heeled woman with a tail and the slogan "The Devil made me do it."

"I like your top."

CEMETERY
[ ☾]

Sam and Dean are shoveling in a grave, the coffin fully exposed. Henry and Elena crouch nearby. "Tell me how we got stuck doing this?" Dean asks. Sam and Dean lift the coffin out of the grave. A skeleton wearing a suit lies in the coffin. "Hey, was, uh, Larry a World War I vet?"

"No." Henry says.

"Well, then, who's the stiff?" Asks Dean.

"No idea." Henry says.

Sam looks at a metal tag on the skeleton's clothes. "Captain Thomas J. Carey III. That mean anything to you?" He asks and Henry shakes his head.

"Well, somebody wanted you to see this, so maybe that somebody is Larry." Dean says.

"So, what, maybe he, uh, survives the attack and hides out with this guy's identity?" Asks Elena.

"Okay. What are we waiting for, then?" Henry walks off. "Cover this up. Let's be on our way."

MOTEL ROOM
[ ☾]

The Impala is parked outside a motel. Sam sits at a table reading John's journal. Henry is on the couch, whistling "As Time Goes By." Dean is using the laptop at the table next to Sam and Elena.

"What is that? I know that tune." Dean says.

"'As Time Goes By'. I hope so. It's from 'Casablanca'." Henry says.

"Right. Dad used to whistle it from time to time." Sam says.

"Your father saw 'Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy' at the drive-in one night. It scared the beeswax out of him." Henry says. "So I got him this little music box that played that song to help him sleep at night. It worked like a charm."

"Wow, it's hard to believe Dad was ever scared of anything." Sam says.

"Hey, uh, according to county records, Tom Carey lives in Lebanon, Kansas, and is a very happy 127-year-old." Dean closes the laptop. "I say we get some shut-eye, head over first thing in the morning."

"Wait, wait, wait. Listen to this. According to Dad's journal, he once tortured a demon that said he made his bones working for Abaddon, who, it turns out, is a Knight of Hell."

"What does that even mean?" Elena asks.

"Knights of Hell are hand-picked by Lucifer himself. They are of the first-fallen, first-born demons." Jeney says. "I only have ever known the two; Abaddon and Katherine."

"Katherine?" Dean asks and looks at Elena.

"Katherine was a Knight of Hell?" Sam asks.

"The Men of Letters had killed her way before my time." Henry says. "My father used to tell stories about her."

"Great." Elena mumbles.

"So very pure, very strong." Sam says.

Henry stands. "Legend has it that Archangels had killed all of them, which, as we have witnessed, is not the case." He says.

"Unless she's the last of her kind." Dean says

Henry gestures to the journal. "You say that belonged to your father?" He asks.

"Yeah." Sam says.

"May I?" Henry says.

Sam slides the journal across the table towards Henry. "It's a hunter's journal. I assume Men of Letters – you use journals, too?" He asks.

"I intended to. I sent away for one the day before my initiation." Henry lifts a photograph tucked into the inside cover of the journal to reveal the initials "HW" stamped in the leather. "As a matter of fact, judging by my initials here, this one, I believe."

"That was yours?" Dean asks.

"It must have arrived after... I'm beginning to gather I don't make it back from this time, do I?" Henry asks.

"We don't know for sure. All we do know is that Dad never saw you again." Sam says.

"What did he think happened to me?"

"He thought you ran out on him." Dean says.

"John was a legacy. I was supposed to teach him the ways of the Letters." John says.

"Well, he learned things a little differently." Dean says.

"How?" Henry asks.

"The hard way. Surviving a lonely childhood, a stinking war... only to get married and have his wife taken by a demon... and later killed by one himself. That man got a bum rap around every turn." Dean says. "But you know what? He kept going. And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad."

"I'm sorry. I wish I had been there for him."

"Yeah, it's a little late for that now, don't you think?" Dean gets up and walks towards the door.

"It's the price we pay for upholding great responsibility. We know that." Henry says.

"Your responsibility was to your family, not some glorified book club!" Dean yells.

"I was a legacy. I had no choice."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." Dean walks out the door and closes it behind him.

Sam and Henry sit at the table for a few moments, then Sam gets up and we hear the door open. Henry looks through John's journal.

When he finally closes it, we see Dean and Sam, wearing jeans and T-shirts, asleep on top of the covers of the beds.