On the way to Sioux Falls, Sam called ahead, but got no response. That only worried everyone a thousand times more.
"Oh, no..." Eden groaned, seeing Mary's car parked outside Jody's house.
"You stay here with her ladyship. We've got this." Dean instructed, stopping the car and getting out.
After a few minutes, Sam slipped out of the front door, motioning for Eden to bring Toni in.
"Yeah, when she clocked me out of the blue, I thought she was a Demon. I had no idea that brainwashing could be so thorough." Jody was saying as Eden and Toni walked in.
The Dark Angel closed and locked the door before letting go of the woman's arm.
"Heya, Jody." She smiled.
"Oh, Elizab- Eden... I meant Eden. Hey." The Sheriff grinned, walking over to hug her.
"I almost forgot you haven't seen me since everything happened." Eden chuckled, giving her a squeeze.
"Yeah, you were always busy with your Vampire town or, you know, dead." Jody cocked a brow, holding Eden by her elbows. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah, me too." Eden nodded, frowning at the bruise on the Sheriff's cheekbone. "Want me to take care of that?"
Jody looked to Dean on the couch, who nodded.
"Uh, sure." She shrugged, clearly not entirely aware of what she meant.
Eden hovered her hand over Jody's cheek, letting the black smoke work its magic. When she released her, Jody touched the previously painful spot, raising her brows.
"Wow. Handy." She smiled her signature, bright smile.
"Ain't it just." Dean commented, stretching out his leg as it was still stiff.
Eden looked over the Sheriff's shoulder, seeing Mary tied to a chair.
"Nice job." She uttered, noticing Alex out of the corner of her eye. "No way is that you, Alex." She gasped, moving over to give the brunette a hug. "Look at you! You've really settled into normalcy rather well, haven't you."
"Yeah." Alex nodded. "Med school and everything."
"If we could cut the pleasantries and small talk." Dean cut in as Jody walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Awe. You wanna play mother to my son?" Mary spoke up. "He's all yours."
"Ouch, brainwashing made you bitchy as Hell, didn't it?" Eden cocked a brow.
"Almost as bitchy as you, sweetie." Mary gave an exaggerated smile.
"Yeah, keep dreaming." Eden uttered.
Dean just glared at his mother.
"Dean." Jody sighed. "That's not your mom."
"What's the matter, Dean? Am I too different from the Mary you know?" His mother asked. "Or too much the same?"
Sam wandered over to Toni.
"Do your thing." He said.
"Alright, you said you could fix her, so... Fix her." Dean looked up at the woman.
"I, um, well, I-"
"She lied." Mary cut the Brit off.
"What?" Sam's jaw clenched.
"Mary's programming. It's permanent." Toni told them.
"But you said-"
"You were going to kill me." The Brit cut Dean off. "The Mary that you know? The good Mary? She's hiding. Behind impenetrable psychic walls. And I'm afraid these walls... Well, they can't be torn down with grenades. Your mother can't be saved."
"So, what's stopping me now from giving Eden the okay to rip your throat out?" Sam growled, moving over to the dining table by Mary.
"Absolutely nothing." Dean replied.
Mary's phone rang next to Sam.
"Oh, goodie. I've been looking for a top up." A murderous glint appeared in Eden's eyes as she smiled.
"Hey, guys, hold up. Ketch keeps calling mom's phone." Sam sighed.
"I'll get it." Mary spoke up.
"Let it go to voicemail. I've been looking forward to watching Eden let loose on this bitch." Dean scoffed.
Sam leaned over, ending the call.
"Let's go for a walk with Toni, shall we, Dean?" Eden smiled brightly.
"Yeah, let's." The older brother nodded, grabbing Toni's arm.
"This is not going to stop!" Toni protested. "Soon enough, they'll find out you're alive and then... Well, if you want my advice; run."
"We're not running." Dean shook his head.
"Then, you die." The woman replied.
"Not bloody likely." Eden chuckled. "They could only catch us off-guard once and we rather spectacularly blew that chance up."
"We'll fight." Sam nodded. "Like Eden said, they were only gunna catch us once. With her power, plus as many Hunters as we can find. We've had far worse odds."
Dean thought it over, looking to Jody, who shrugged.
"Yeah. Yeah, okay." He nodded.
"Great, can I kill the bitch now?" Eden pointed a lazy finger at Toni.
"'Fraid not. We might need her for this." Sam replied, earning a frustrated, borderline childish whine from his love.

The next day, they'd assembled every available Hunter in the area. Jody handed out beers as they waited on the last two, who eventually knocked on the door.
Alex answered it, revealing two men in their early to mid-forties.
"Walt. Roy." Sam nodded his greeting.
"Well, damn." One of them said.
"We haven't seen you guys since-"
"Since you killed us." Dean cut off the other one.
"Excuse me?" Eden growled, her ears perking up at the revelation.
She went for them, but Sam grabbed her arm, giving her a warning look.
"No hard feelings." Dean continued.
"Uh, please. Get comfortable." Sam told them.
"Hard to do that when your pet's stabbing me with those pretty little eyes o' hers." The first one to speak said with a perverse smirk, eyeing her up and down.
Sam visibly tensed, tempted to let Eden go.
"Alright, that's enough. I'd be careful what you say there, Walt. She'll have your lungs out faster than you can inflate them." Jody said, walking in with beers for them. "And no, that's not an exaggeration."
"Are you sure about this?" Dean uttered to his brother before taking a seat.
"You gunna tell us what we're doing here or what?" Walt asked.
"Sure, yeah. Of course." Sam sighed. "So, my brother and I, we, um... No." He shook his head as he cut himself off. "You know what? I called you here because people – our people – are being slaughtered and we're next. The British Men of Letters, they came here because they thought they could do our job better than we could. They helped us with their flashy gear and their tech. Most of you had the good sense to turn 'em down. I didn't. They said they wanted the same thing we wanted, you know? A world free of monsters. That's not what they really wanted. They want control. They wanna live in a world where they can sit in some office and decide who gets to live and who gets to die. And they've killed people – innocent people just because they got in the way. They think the ends justify the means, but we know better. We know hunting isn't just about killing, it's about doing what's right – even when it's hard. So, we go by our gut, right? We play by our own rules. And that scares them. They want us dead because we're the one thing they can't control."
"So what do you want from us?" Roy spoke up.
"I want you to follow me." Sam replied. "Take the fight to them. To hit them before they hit us. We go in fast and hard and we fight. And we beat them down until they give up... Or until they're dead." He took a pause to read the room before he continued. "Look, they're well trained and well-armed. Some of us might not make it back. But we will win. We will take down the bad guys because that's what we do. They're scared of us, yeah. Good. They should be." He turned to the girl next to him, who smiled as her eyes sparkled with pride. "You know how they work. Did you wanna add anything?"
"I think you just monologued the best monologue in the entire history of mankind." She chuckled with slight disbelief. "So, I can't really follow that up with anything."
Sam waved his arms towards the centre of the room.
"You've got all the info we'll need and you... Might wanna give them a heads up on your abilities. So, the floor is yours."
Eden sighed, looking around at the eleven pairs of eyes on her.
"Alright." She said, stepping into the centre of the room. "Some of you know me, some of you might've heard of me. For those of you who are a little confused, my name is Eden. Some might know me better as Elizabeth Smythe. Now, I won't pretend to be as good as public speaking as Sam apparently is, but I'll give it a go." She started, earning a breathy chuckle from the brothers, Jody and Alex. "You all should know about the existence of Angels by now. Well, I'm the only Angel God's sister ever made. I am the daughter of Adam and Eve and I'm an Angel of Darkness."
"The Hell's that supposed to mean?" Walt scoffed.
Eden moved to the widest open space in the room and shrugged out her wings. A couple of the Hunters backed away, all who didn't know her gasped, raising their brows. Eden looked up at them, revealing her black and red eyes. She blinked them away and shrugged back her wings before continuing to talk.
"This is your one and only head's up about my abilities. I live off Human blood, like a Vampire. No, I will not harm you. Ever. No, I do not drink straight from the proverbial faucet. Not unless they're a threat and need to die anyway." She glared over at Toni. "My abilities include teleportation, razor sharp wings, telekinesis, healing and I can also manipulate nature and elements – which will probably be surprisingly useful in this fight. I've been a Hunter for two and a half centuries. I have fought alongside your ancestors, I have even fought alongside the people we are about to go to war with. I know how the British Men of Letters works. As Sam said, they are trained – we're talking Marine-level trained from childhood. They think the Winchesters are dead. There's advantage number one. Advantage number two is that they won't know you're alongside them."
"If you're so big and powerful, then what are the rest of us doing here risking our necks?" Roy narrowed his eyes.
"You two apparently killed my boys, so feel free to disappear if you're too bitch to deal with real problems." Eden retorted.
"Miss the chance to kill some Brits? You gotta be kidding me." Walt scoffed.
"I may be 'big and powerful', as you so eloquently put it, but I can't be in multiple places at once. I am not omniscient. We're taking the fight to them, so there will be more of them than us. If I see or hear that one of you hurt, I will try my best to get to you to heal you. If I can help it, I won't see anyone in this room with so much as a layer of skin missing from their elbow when we come back from this. I think... That just about covers everything."
Eden gave a mildly panicked look to Jody, who gave her a smile.
"You know where we're going?" She asked.
"Yep." Sam nodded as she threw him some keys.
"Gear up. We roll out in ten." Jody addressed the room as she left it.
Eden took a deep sigh, resting her head on Sam's chest.
He chuckled, wrapping his arms round her shoulders.
"You did great." He told her.
"No, you did great. To them, I just sounded like some British brat who likes to talk about herself." She mumbled.
"Na, you really sold it with the healing thing. Gave 'em a bit of hope, you know? That they might actually walk away from this." Dean spoke up.
"Great. So, I'm the British brat who likes to talk about herself and give people possibly false hope." Eden grumbled as Alex walked over.
"They believed it." She said. "That's the main thing. I saw it in their faces."
"Thanks, Alex." Eden gave a small smile. "I just hope I can follow it through."
"You will." The girl replied, placing a reassuring hand on the Dark Angel's forearm.
"Come on, let's get yo-"
"No, I'm not going." Dean cut off his brother as he was helped up.
"What?" Sam frowned.
"Vampy Pants healed me up as much as she could, sure. But I'm still way too stiff to fight. You saw me, I can barely walk across the room, I'll be no good in a fight." Dean sighed.
"I'll take a jacked up Dean Winchester over any ten other Hunters any day." Sam chuckled.
"Yeah, I saw you." The older brother said. "You're ready for this. You show those sons of bitches whose boss."
"What about you? What are you gunna do?" The younger asked.
"I'm gunna save mom." Dean nodded. "Look, if she's in there, if our real mom is in there somewhere, then I'm gunna try and find her, bring her back. You got this. Come here." He opened his arms as Sam walked towards him. The brothers embraced in a hug. "You come back."
"Promise." Sam whispered.
Dean looked over Sam's shoulder to Eden.
"You make sure he comes back."
"You know I will." She smiled.
"Yeah, I do. You come back too, you hear?" Dean parted from Sam, bringing Eden into him by her shoulder.
"I'm with you boys for the long haul. You're not getting rid of me so easily." She giggled.
"Good. We wouldn't want it any other way." Dean told her, hugging her tight. He separated from her slightly, cupping the back of her head to place a soft kiss on her forehead. "You're just as much family as Sammy and I are."
"A wise yet grumpy man once told me 'family don't end in blood.' Never really, fully understood that until I met you two." Eden looked up at her boys, who smiled at her.
"We love you, Vampy Pants." Dean sighed.
"I love you both, too." She smirked. "Go save your mum. We've got the easy stuff covered."
Dean looked to Sam.
"Bitch."
"Jerk." Sam chuckled, walking off as Dean patted his back.

Sam didn't like how silent the Impala was as the pair led the convoy to the British Men of Letters base.
His mind was already racing with several dozen thoughts. The fact that he couldn't tell what Eden was thinking at this particular moment frustrated him even more. He looked over at her in the passenger seat.
She was resting her elbow on the window ledge, staring out at the darkening dusk sky, running her index finger along her bottom lip in deep thought.
She looked stunning.
Sam always thought she looked stunning, but in this moment, she was perfect.
"I'm gunna go crazy if one of us doesn't say something." He smiled, looking back at the road. "What are you thinking about?"
"Mostly thinking through scenarios – trying to figure out my best plan of attack to keep the rest of you safe." She shrugged.
"Don't do that." Sam shook his head. "Don't plan 'cause, in my experience anyway, if you go in with a plan, things end up screwing up and accidents happen."
"But, that's all I can do... If I don't plan, I'm going to start thinking about things I don't want to think about." Eden sighed, putting her feet up on the dash as she shrunk down in the bench seat.
"Like what?" Sam frowned, glancing over to her for a moment.
"Like how it sounded like we were saying goodbye to Dean." She said. "The 'we love you', the 'bitch, jerk' exchange – he hugged you. He never hugs you unless he thinks he might never see you again."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it? When was the last time you two hugged just because you felt like it?" Eden countered.
Sam thought for a moment. Then sighed.
"Okay, fine. You have a point." The car fell silent again. "We're gunna get through this, Eden. With you, this'll be easy."
"No pressure." The girl scoffed, choosing to look out the window again.
"I'd think we could pull this off even if we didn't have you." Sam cocked a brow. "I'm just glad we do. I'm glad I do."
Eden looked back at him as he placed his hand on her thigh.
"I imagine I'd be slightly bored if I never met you boys." She smirked.
"You'd still be Elizabeth." Sam pointed out.
"Like I say – bored." She chuckled, earning a look. "Oh, come on, Sam, you've got to admit since I became Eden again, I've been a whole lot more fun. I've certainly been able to keep you boys on your toes."
"Oh, I wouldn't doubt that for a second. But maybe 'fun' isn't the right word. 'Interesting', perhaps?" Sam smirked. "Definitely not boring, though."
"I suppose I could take 'interesting' and roll with it." Eden shrugged, unable to hide her smile.
Sam chuckled, shaking his head as he focused on the road.
There was something on his mind, still. Said something had been on his mind for months now – close to a year, in fact.
"Can we just be straight for a sec?" He sighed.
"Have you seen the female form? There's nothing on this Earth that could possibly make me straight." Eden smirked.
Sam let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head again.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" He cocked a brow at her.
"Ah, but I'm your idiot." She pointed a lazy finger at him. "Go on, what's the serious thing?"
Sam took a deep breath, trying to figure out how he was going to do this.
"We don't know how tonight will go down. Something might happen and I may not walk out of there." Eden was about to speak up, but he cut off her off. "So, I want- no, I need to hear your answer to this question before we do this."
He looked over to Eden, who's icy blues were urging him to continue.
"Marry me."
Eden's brows raised.
"What?" She choked out.
"Marry me." He repeated. "Possibly dying knowing your answer – whatever it may be – sounds a whole lot better than me never asking you in the first place."
"Sam, this isn't a good reason to ask me... You need to mean it. Not just come out with it because you think you might die." She sighed.
"When do we not have imminent death looming over us? I was going to ask you months ago, but then... You died, and I thought I'd never get to."
"All I'm seeing is one last hoorah before you make some mistake tonight. Have you actually thought this through? My life is infinite, Sam. Sure, yours could be too, but immortality seems really appealing on paper, not so much in practice. You can't just say something like this if you're going to question it later."
Sam gave a small smile, leaning passed her to open the glove compartment, pulling out a small black velvet box. Eden gasped, pulling her hands to her mouth.
"Like I say, I've been thinking about this for the better part of a year. I don't wanna beat around the bush anymore. So, open it and say yes if you love me like I love you. We can't deny that our past was memorable, but I want our future to be infinite." He meant every single word.
Eden took the box, opening it up to see a silver band engraved to look like a tree branch, reminding her of the things she used to make in the Garden as a child. On top, was a stunning ruby stone, perfectly matched to her hair and emeralds – Sam's birth stone - scattered around it like leaves.
"Oh, wow..." She breathed. "You really have thought about this."
"Of course I have. I never thought I'd get the opportunity to ask someone to spend their life with me, but then I met you and I knew from the beginning that it was all going to change. I want you to marry me, Eden. I want us to have those kids we talked about and I want to spend the rest of eternity revelling in the fact that we made the perfect family. You, me, the kids, Dean and Cas." Sam told her.
The girl sighed, closing the box up again and placing it on the dash.
"I'm not going to give you an answer..." She said, earning a worried frown from the man next to her. "I'm not going to give you an answer until we've both walked away from this fight. Because that's exactly what we're going to do. Then, you can ask me properly. Deal?"
Sam gave her a small smile, taking the box from the dash to put in his jacket pocket. He had no idea how she did it, but she always ended up giving him hope. He was going to walk away from that fight so he could hear her answer.
"You're always so sure of yourself..." He sighed. "But, deal."