Sam and Dean had taken us to a new home of theirs in Lebanon, Kansas. It was a military, 1950's bunker.

They had told me that they were doing the Trials to close the Gates of Hell.

Sam was doing the Trials. He was weak and wounded and sick because of it.

I walked into the library, seeing Dean push past Castiel.

Sam saw me, standing. "Hey. How you feeling?"

"I... am getting better," I told him, sitting down in a chair, groaning in pain. "But in a lot of pain."

"Well, you just got brought back from the dead and then nearly died again," Sam told me. "I'd be surprised if you weren't."

"I'm fine," I told him. "You're not."

"Well, two Trials down, one to go," Sam told us.

"And the final test, do you--do you know what it is?" I asked.

"I have to cure a Demon," Sam answered.

"Of what?" I asked, chuckling.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Sam told us.

Castiel walked closer.

Dean walked in with a plate in hand. "Soup's on. There we go." He put the plate in front of Sam, taking a drink of the open beer. "I think this is, uh... Oh, it's still good."

Sam looked at the plate, sitting down. "A half-drunk beer, jerky, and three peanut-butter cups?"

"Yeah, we're--we're running a little low," Dean told us. "I'll make a run."

"Dean, I can go with you," Castiel told him. 

Dean didn't answer.

Sam cleared his throat. "Hey, uh, do we have a room 7B?"

*  *

Sam and Dean had left to find room 7B.

Castiel and I were sitting at the two separate tables in the library.

I poured myself a drink of alcohol. "I never thought that this could help an Angel like me." I took a drink. "But, wow, was I wrong."

I looked at the liquid in the glass.

 Castiel hesitated. "Ava." I looked up. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I asked.

"For everything," Castiel answered.

"Everything?" I repeated. "Like, uh... like working with Crowley and Balthazar? One of whom who killed me when I got close to stopping you from opening the door to Purgatory to collect the souls and release the Leviathans into the world, which resulted into many deaths?"

"Yes," Castiel answered.

"Or like bolting off with the Angel Tablet, hiding from the Angels, and forcing Naomi to bring me back just to find you?" I asked. "And when I got the tablet, I was nearly killed for it again. And nearly died saving your life. Again."

"Yes," Castiel answered.

I nodded. "And I assume you took full blame and full responsibility after my death. Made yourself think it was your fault and somehow did penance for the actions you'd done."

"Yes," Castiel answered. "I was in Purgatory for over a year." I looked at him in surprise. "Naomi saved me and... that's what's led us to this."

I looked down. "Believe it or not, Cas... I don't blame you." Castiel frowned in confusion. "You're not the one that killed me."

"But you were right, before," Castiel told me. "I had to watch you die."

"And you paid the price for your actions," I told him. "You killed the Angel that killed me. You're my brother, Cas. And I saved you yesterday out of pure... instinct. I can't hate you. I can't blame you. I just... I can't."

Castiel took this in, pensive.

Sam walked in, walking toward us. "Hey, guys. There's something that you might wanna see."

*   *

Sam, Dean, Castiel and I sat in a darkened room with a movie projector set up, playing the black and white home movie, showing a priest sitting on the stairs, smoking.

We heard a girl's voice. "Simon, we're filming."

"Um, hello, world," Simon told us.

"So, this new ritual you're going to see, this new type of exorcism, h--how does it work?" the girl asked.

"I don't know," Simon told her. "It's my first time."

Simon stood, walking away.

The girl filming followed his movement with the camera, showing her reflection in a nearby mirror.

"Wait," Sam told us. "Is that Abaddon?"

"It's not killy enough," Dean told us. "It's got to be the, uh, the chick she possessed. What did Henry call her?" 

"Josie," Sam answered.

We could hear a woman screaming.

Simon and Josie walked downstairs into the basement, showing a priest standing next to a woman in chains with candles lit everywhere.

"Hurry," the priest told them. "We must do it now."

The woman continued to scream. "Dead! They're all dead! Everyone you ever loved."

"Hey, those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon," Sam told us.

I looked at Sam and Dean in confusion. "In your what?"

"Demon on a leash," Dean told us. "Cool."

The other priest splashed Holy Water onto the woman, making her burn and scream.

Simon and the priest were holding crosses toward the Demon woman, chanting together. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus... hanc animam redintegra." The priest cut his palm, holding it against the Demon woman's mouth. "Lustra!"

A bright white light emanated from the Demon woman, surrounding the room, covering the screen. When it faded, we saw the body of the woman falling to the floor, dead, her heart missing.

"She's dead," Josie told them. Simon and the other priest were coughing. "Where's the Demon?"

"Stop filming," the priest told her.

"What happened?" Josie asked.

"Will you just stop?" the priest asked impatiently.

The movie came to an end.

"Well, that was weird," Dean told us. "With three exclamation points."

"That wasn't a normal exorcism," Sam told us. "They changed the words."

"I believe 'lustra' is Latin for 'wash' or 'cleanse'," Castiel explained.

"Oh, yeah, 'cause that was the most freaky thing, was the vocabulary," Dean told us sarcastically. "What about the bloody high five or the chest burster? Anything else on the film, like director's commentary, sequel, maybe?"

Sam looked at the file. "Yeah, listen to this. The older priest, Max Thompson, bit the dust in '58, but the younger one is still alive and still in St. Louis."

"Think this kind of weird is worth the drive?" Dean asked.

"Dean, everything in those folders, the possessions, the deals, all of it, we've seen that before," Sam told him. "But that? That was all new. Yeah, it's worth the drive."

"All right," Dean told him. "Let's roll." Castiel stood. Dean looked from Castiel to me. "Not you two."

"Sam is more damaged than I am," Castiel told us. "I just want to help."

"We don't need your help," Dean told him. "You? You go onto the run that you said that you wanted to go on. And then you can stay here and watch Ava until she gets better."

"Since when do I need protection?" I asked.

"Since you got brought back from the dead only to be nearly killed again," Dean answered. "You're still healing."

I tilted my head. "Fair enough. But since when are you the boss of me?"

Dean didn't answer, hesitating, not coming up with an answer.

I raised my eyebrows slightly.

"Shut up," Dean told me. 

I shook my head in amusement, looking at Sam.

Sam smiled tiredly.

*  *  

Castiel had gone on the food run as Dean had asked, but he still wasn't back because he was talking to the Archangel Metatron.

Sam had called me from the road to tell me about what Father Simon had said about Father Thompson continuing on with his exorcisms and cleansing rituals from the video, also asking me to see what I could find.

I was sitting at one of the tables in the library.

Sam and Dean walked in.

"Hey," Sam told me. "Where's Cas?"

"Talking to Metatron," I answered.

"Metatron?" Dean repeated.

"Yeah," I answered. "Apparently, Met needs help, and he went to ask for it from Cas."

"For what?" Dean asked.

"He didn't say," I told them.

"Okay," Sam told me, looking at the tape recorder player in front of me. "What did you find?"

"So, it turns out that, uh, Father Thompson recorded all of his Demon-cure tests," I told them, holding up a tape recorder to show them. "This one here, this was the last one, two days before he died." 

I put the tape into the player, hitting play.

Father Thompson's voice came. "The date is August 3, 1958. This is trial 19, hour 1. My subject is Peter Kent. Mr. Kent is the father of two young sons, and three weeks ago, he was possessed by a demon. I'm going to ask you a question now. When you crawled into Mr. Kent and ate his children, how did it feel?"

"Orgasmic," the Demon told him.

The Demon snarled and groaned.

"The first does has been administered," Thompson told us.

"Do we know what Padre was dosing number-one dad up with?" Sam asked.

I looked at the file. "Uh, yeah. His own purified blood."

"Purified how?" Dean asked.

"Before he started, Father Thompson went to confession," I answered.

"This is trial 19, hour 2," Thompson told us. The Demon snarled. "When you ate his children, how did it feel?"

"Stringy," the Demon told him, groaning in pain.

"The second dose, has been administered Hour 4," Thompson told us. "When you ate his children—"

"Kiss my ass!" the Demon told him.

"How did it feel?" Thompson asked.

"Soft," the Demon told him, screaming.

"The sixth dose has been administered," Thompson told us.

"Stop," the Demon told him.

"How..." Thompson trailed off. The Demon screamed. "Did it..." The Demon continued to scream. "Feel?"

"Stop!" the Demon told him, breathing heavily.

"Hour 8, the subject is prepped," Thompson told us. The Demon was groaning in pain, breathing heavily. "Exorcizamus te,omnis immundus spiritus. Hanc animam redintegra. Lustra! Lustra! When you ate his children, how did it feel?"

For the first time, the Demon sounded to be in emotional pain, deeply in guilt, regret and sorrow. "They were screaming. And I laughed. Why did I laugh? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. God, I was a monster."

"But now you are a man again," Thompson told him. "And you have been saved."

The tape came to an end.

"Did he just... cure a Demon?" Sam asked.

"Maybe," Dean answered. "Could we take this hoodoo on a test drive?"

"Um..." I trailed off. "I have the exorcism right here. All you need is the blood, consecrated ground, and a Demon."

"So, what?" Sam asked. "We summon a Demon, trap it—"

"Or—or we use one that we've already tagged," Dean told us. "Do we still have Dad's old army field surgeon's kit?"

"It's in the trunk," Sam answered. "Why?"

Dean smirked. "Yeah, I think it's time we put Humpty Dumpty back together again."

I looked at Sam and Dean in confusion.

Dean smirked, clapping his hands, walking out, leaving.

Sam sat down across from me, wincing in pain.

"Uh-oh," I told him. "You look worse than me. And that's saying something."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah. Thanks." 

I smiled a small smile. "How are you doing, Sam? Really."

"Well, uh..." Sam trailed off, chuckling lightly. "Um, better now."

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. I mean, not like, Trial wise. Honestly? Um, my, uh, my whole body hurts. I feel nauseous and like I'm starving at the same time, and everything smells like rotting meat."

"Sounds like a bad hangover," I told him. "Not that I would know. Have too much Jaeger lately?" Sam chuckled. I smiled a small smile. "Maybe you should, uh, take a break. Get some air."

"Ava, the only thing that's gonna make me feel better is finishing this," Sam told me. "But, uh... Yeah. Seeing that you're back, that you're here... that you're alive..."

Sam didn't have to finish for me to know what he meant.

I nodded. "I know, Sam. I know." Sam smiled tiredly. I looked down for a moment, looking at him curiously. "You gave me a hunter's funeral?"

"Well, I..." Sam trailed off, at a lost for words. "Honestly, you were more of a hunter than an Angel sometimes."

I raised my eyebrows slightly in acknowledgement, nodding. "Yeah. I was always one rebellious Angel, apparently. Even for the times that I don't remember, according to Naomi." Sam frowned in confusion. I shook my head. "Never mind."

Sam seemed to remember something. "Oh, um..." He pulled out my Angel Sword, holding it across the table toward me, one arm still on the table. "Here. I figured you'd want this back."

I smiled, taking the sword, one arm still on the table. "Well, this might be the thing that I missed most." I looked at Sam. "Inanimated, for course."

Sam chuckled. "Of course." We chuckled, looking down. Sam took my hand that was on the table. "It's good to have you back, Ava."

I raised my gaze to meet his, smiling a small smile. "It's good to be back."