"𝙄 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨, 𝘾𝙖𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙜𝙪𝙮𝙨. 𝙒𝙚 — 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣. 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙮."

Delaney ticked an eyebrow up at Theodore as he held up a packet of itching powder to her about a week later. The Winchesters and Theodore stumbled across a hunt in Nebraska where a babysitter had been pronounced dead after supposedly trying to scratch her own brain out. Or, at least, that's what the coroner had mentioned when Delaney and Theodore dressed up in their FBI suits and took a trip down to the morgue to get more information. A press on nail had been found in the baby sitter's — Amber — temporal lobe and that had been claimed the cause of her death. Though, judging by how marred and open the wounds in the side of Amber's pale head looked, Delaney and Theodore both had the hunch that something was off.

When they went to question the family that Amber babysat for, Delaney had sat with the parents of the son, Jimmy, while Theodore snuck off to talk to the kid alone. Something that Delaney was iffy about in the first place as she still worked her way up to trusting Theodore again in the first place. Even though her stomach still churned at the sight of him. However, Theodore managed to talk to the kid without the parents noticing and Delaney was able to speak to the parents, not getting much out of them as nothing weird or dark had happened in the house before. No cold spots, no random creaks, nothing. 

That was until Theodore and Delaney stepped outside to leave and Theodore brandished the itching powder from the inside of his suit jacket pocket, a grin over his face as if he had struck gold. 

"Jimmy said he put this on Amber's hairbrush," Theodore explained to Delaney who merely crossed her arms across her button up shirt covered chest, cocking her head. 

"Theodore, I know it's been a long week, but even you should know that itching powder wouldn't make Amber scratch her brains out. It is literally just ground up maple seeds. Hell, Dean and I put the itching powder in Sam's pants two years ago in the midst of a prank war and you don't see Sam walking around without an ass," Delaney retorted, gesturing in the general direction of the motel where Dean and Sam sat waiting for the duo's return.

"If you have any other bright ideas, Winchester, I'm open to 'em," Theodore snarked back with a huff, pocketing the itching powder again as he carried on towards the Impala. He turned on his heel, walking backwards as Delaney walked after him with a scowl and clicking his fingers in her direction. "You know, you worked up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Maybe you should take a nap."

Delaney opened her mouth to shoot a remark back when her cellphone buzzed rapidly in her pocket. Exhaling heavily, Delaney took out her phone and placed the phone to her ear, furrowing her eyebrows when the coroner's voice filtered through her ear to let her know there had been another body brought in and that she should come down to look at it. "Yeah, yeah, we'll be right there."

Theodore couldn't even get a word out himself before Delaney was rushing around him and into the car, shouting for him to hurry so they could get back to the morgue. The drive back to the morgue was quick and silent and the duo both rushed out of the car the second the car was placed into park. Their feet carried them towards the room where the coroner said the incident happened and the two froze in the doorway to see a body bag rolled out, the bottom half not zippered up and showing off the charcoaled legs of the victim with an older gentleman in a black and blue plaid robe sat in a chair near the window, silent.

"What happened?" Delaney questioned, eyes following the wheeling bag before it was gone from sight down the hall.

"Guy got electrocuted. Could have been from a loose wire or a piece of equipment shorted out. So far, we haven't found anything," the coroner explained, crossing his arms with a small shrug as he sounded a tad confused himself. "Uh — the guy in this room, Mr. Stanley. He says he saw it, but he's not making a lick of sense. Senile."

Theodore politely thanked the coroner and stepped further into the room with Delaney in tow, approaching the older gentleman slowly. "Uh — Mr. Stanley?"

"It was just a joke. I didn't know it would actually work," Mr. Stanley mumbled, distant eyes still trained outside the window and off into the distance. "All I did . . . was shake his hand."

Delaney blinked in confusion when Mr. Stanley finally turned back to her and Theodore, uncurling his fist to show them the small buzzer in his hand that would have given the victim barely any lick of shock. Definitely nowhere near enough to kill him.

What the hell was going on?

About an hour later, after Theodore stopped off at the store to buy a frozen ham, the duo returned back to the motel room and gave Dean and Sam the run down of what had happened so far that day. Theodore had held up the buzzer toy from Mr. Stanley and the ham, claiming they should test out the toy again on the ham to see what was going on with something that was supposed to be used as a childish prank. Delaney had watched with raised eyebrows as the three boys placed on protective glasses and Dean made a dramatic showing of putting on rubber gloves, the buzzer ring dangling from his middle finger as he stood before the ham that rested in a tin tray. 

"You look absolutely ridiculous," Delaney commented, shaking her head at her eldest brother who pointed a finger in her direction and only earning a snort from her.

"Hey, safety first, baby girl. Don't cry to me if your eyes are hurting after this 'cause something flew off and hit you," Dean warned, narrowing his eyes at Delaney who held her hands up in defense and mumbled a go on to him. He lowered his hand to the frozen ham and the room startled as an electric buzzing erupted from the buzzer ring and practically cooked the ham right in front of their eyes.

Delaney let out a sound of disbelief and shock, slowly walking forward the table where the ham smoked and sizzled with wide, green eyes. "I — what the hell? That crap's not supposed to work."

Sam scrunched up his face as his hazel eyes bounced between the ring still around Dean's finger and the burnt ham before him. "Yeah and those things don't even have batteries. So . . . so what? Are — are we dealing with cursed objects or something?"

"Sounds good. Maybe there's a powerful witch in town," Dean suggested, snapping the gloves from his hands along with the clearly messed with prank toy that was no longer just a toy. He grabs the carving knife left on the table and cuts off a piece of the ham, popping it into his mouth with a happy grin at the taste. "Is there any link between the, uh, the joy buzzer and the itching powder?"

Delaney shrugged and ran a hand through her curly hair, poking at the itching powder that now laid next to the buzzer and puffing out her cheeks. "Um, one was made in China and the other in Mexico, but they were bought from the same store."

Dean cut off another piece of ham and pointed it at Delaney who scrunched up her nose, tilting her head back and away from the piece of meat. "Guess you know where you and Theo need to go while Sammy and I do research."

Delaney found herself stood outside The Conjurarium shop around twenty minutes later with Theodore, both of them dressed in their street clothes once again. She stepped into the shop when Theodore held the door open for her to step through, a robotic, maniacal laugh playing as the two walked inside. Her green eyes inspected the small shop that was filled with a multitude of gags and pranks for any prankster to get their greedy hands on. She had picked up a random prank item that looked like fake vomit when Theodore called for her from behind and she turned to see him hold up a whoopie cushion package with a boyish grin on his face.

"Hey, Del, you think we should pull this prank on your brothers? How mad you think they'll be?" Theodore mused, flipping the package over so he could read the little cardboard handle to see what was written on it. 

"Dean would kick your ass," Delaney answered, tilting her head with an overly sweet smile. "Maybe you should do it then."

Theodore scowled at her, but didn't put the farting prank down as he continued across the store and towards the register, stumbling back into Delaney when a guy in a graphic tee with a long haired man and a polar bear beneath an ugly shade of green button up that was left unbuttoned. He yelped when Delaney huffed and pushed him away from her and to the side, cleaning off the tip of her boots that he'd scuffed up in his startle. 

"Welcome to The Conjurarium, sanctum of magic and mystery," the man, who Theodore and Delaney both learned was the owner, greeted and stepped down from the tiny stage behind the register, walking over to the duo. "How can I help you two?"

"You sold any itching powder or joy buzzers lately?" Theodore questioned, earning him a subtle jab in the side form Delaney for not being subtle.

The owner chuckled, not catching on to the odd question and resting his hands on the counter. "Yeah, a grand total of one of each. They aren't exactly the big-ticket items. Look, you two here to buy something or . . . what?"

 Delaney stepped up closer to the counter as Theodore fumbled in his pockets for his wallet to pay for the whoopie cushion. "Um, so . . . do you get many customers?"

"Kids come in. They don't buy much, but they're more than happy to break stuff. These days, all they care about are their iPhones and those kissing vampire movies. The whole thing makes me just . . . "

"Angry?" Theodore filled in for the owner when he trailed off, looking for the proper word to use.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am angry. This shop has been my life for twenty years and now it's wasting away to nothing."

"Which is why you hate them," Theodore continued, eyes narrowing subtly at the man that he tried to suss out as the witch of the town.

The owner shrugged noncommittally with a small nod. "I suppose so."

"You wish there was something you could do about it. So you're taking revenge . . . " Theodore trailed off momentarily, grabbing a nearby rubber chicken and slamming it down on the counter with the joy buzzer held in his hand from he plucked it from his inner pocket. Before Delaney could try and stop him from making himself look like a fool, Theodore continued as he waved the joy buzzer around. " . . . with this."

The owner let out a cry of shock as Theodore jammed the buzzer into the chicken, causing it to spark and melt from the electricity and creating a mess along the counter. All while Delaney exhaled heavily and rubbed a hand over her forehead in frustration. 

Delaney dropped her hand to her side with a sharp look to Theodore who sheepishly smiled in Delaney's direction as the owner fell down to his ass on the small stage behind the counter, wide eyes bouncing between the duo. "So, you happy? He's not a witch, Theodore."

Theodore grimaced and turned back to the shaking owner with his hands held up in defense, backing towards the door with a nervous chuckle. "Uh . . . sorry. Happy Prank Day?"

"Oh for the love of — "

The next morning, Delaney and Theodore had made another trip to the hospital after they had gotten a call about a man coming in after having all thirty-two of his teeth removed from his mouth by a man in a pink tutu — presumably the Tooth Fairy. Theodore had also come across two other cases in the hospital where two kids were brought in with ulcers after swallowing soda and pop rocks and another case where a man's face got stuck after making a funny face at his kids.      

Bringing both Theodore and Delaney to the conclusion that they were either dealing with some sort of god or some sort of trickster. 

When Delaney and Theodore returned to the motel afterwards, map clutched tightly in Delaney's hand as she had marked up all the places that had been attacked in the car, Delaney noticed Dean and Sam still eating the ham that had been cooked thanks to the joy buzzer and she rolled her eyes. "Really? Still eating the ham?"

"Delaney, we don't have a fridge!" Dean argued through a mouth full of food, earning disgusted grimaces from both Theodore and Delaney while Sam merely kicked Dean's shin not to talk with his mouth full.

"Right, well, I found something," Delaney carried on, walking over to the table the boys sat at and placed the map down smoothly to the table and revealing the markings she'd made in red marker. "Here. Um, Tooth Fairy attack was here, pop rocks and coke here, then you've got itching powder, face freeze, and joy buzzer — all located within a two mile radius."

Sam peered over the map, leaning forward onto his arms so he could properly scan over the work that Delaney had done with a nod. "So, we got a blast zone of weird, and inside, fantasy becomes reality. What's the a-bomb at its center?"

Theodore shrugged, peeking over Delaney's shoulder and pointing to the spot that Sam mentioned. "Not much. Four acres of farmland . . . and a house."

Dean's chewing slowed down as his green eyes that matched Delaney's flickered up to her face. "Can you please tell me that our motel isn't in that circle?"

"Dean, you always taught me it was wrong to lie," Delaney mused, furrowing her eyebrows shortly after as she noticed him shift uncomfortably in his chair. "Why?"

Dean grumbled to himself and slowly raised his left hand to show the hair that had grown out across his palm and he sent a dark glare to Delaney when her hand slapped around her mouth to stop the laugh that wanted to tumble out. "Jesus, Dee, what the hell — "

"I got bored! The nurse I saw earlier when Sam and I went to the hospital to help was hot," Dean defended, waving his hands around in the air and Delaney shook her head at her brother. "Shut up, Delaney, or I'll kick your tiny ass!"

Delaney snorted and licked her lips, a taunting smirk gracing her face. "I took down Alastair. I think I can take you, old man."

Dean shot her an unamused look while Theodore and Sam both rolled their lips into their mouths to hide their amused grins. "Just go check out that house, would you?"

"Sure, but if you use my razor, I'll  kick your tiny little ass," Delaney warned, pushing away from the table to move back towards the motel room door since her and Theodore were already dressed in their FBI suits. 

"Hey! My ass is not tiny, you brat!"

Delaney crouched on the porch with her lock picking kit in hand, Randy's knife tucked securely into the holster hidden by her suit jacket and just about had the lock unhinged when the door suddenly swung open. She swiftly hid the kit behind her back with a small smile to the young boy that opened the door and stepped back to Theo, placing the kit into his back pocket of his suit pants. "Hello. What's your name?"

"Who wants to know?" the boy asked, eyes bouncing between Delaney and Theodore in confusion.

"The FBI," Theodore informed, holding up his fake ID while Delaney plucked out hers and held it up for the boy to see.

"Let me see that," the boy yanked Theodore's fake ID from his hand, inspecting it for a long moment before handing it back to him. "So, what, you guys don't knock? If you're looking for my parents, they aren't here. They work."

Delaney exchanged a silent look with Theodore before she turned back to the boy, bending down with her hands on her knees so she could be eye level with him. "Well, would you mind if we ask you a few questions, sweetie? Maybe let us take a look around the house? You can trust us. We're the authorities."

After a moment of long contemplation, the boy nodded and walked back into his house with Delaney and Theodore following after him. The hunters' eyes scanned around the front foyer as they passed through it but finding nothing out of place or weird, following the boy into the kitchen where a pot rested on the stove with a can resting on the counter next to the stove.

"What's that?" Theodore asked the boy, gesturing to the pot as the little boy stirred whatever was inside.

"It's called soup. You heat it up and you eat it," the boy sassed, switching off the stove and moving the steaming pot over to the kitchen table and sitting himself down.

"Oh my God, there's two of them," Theodore noted, shoulders slumping as his eyes bounced between the boy and Delaney who didn't even bother to look at him. "This will be interesting."

Waving Theodore off, Delaney followed the boy over to the kitchen table and stood behind the chair across from him with her hands resting on the back of the chair. "Right. We know. It's just, um . . . I used to make my own dinner, too, when I was a kid. My dad was out on business a lot so my brothers and I had to fend for ourselves most of the time."

"Well, I'm not a kid."

Delaney breathed out a laugh, suddenly liking the kid the more and more she spoke to him. She didn't know what it was, but the kid had a certain charm to him and she found him rather amusing. "Right, yeah, totally. I'm Alyssa, by the way. "

"Jesse," the boy — who Theodore and Delaney now knew to be Jesse — replied, smiling the tiniest bit at Delaney as he picked up his spoon to begin eating his soup. 

"Jesse, nice to meet you."

"Did you draw this?" Theodore cut in, stepping up next to Delaney with a drawing from the fridge in his hand. It was a drawing of the exact description that the man from the hospital gave about the supposed Tooth Fairy that visited him the night before. "You think the, uh, the Tooth Fairy looks like this?"

Jesse took a slow sip of his still piping hot soup and glanced up his drawing. "Yeah. My dad told me about him. What, didn't your dad tell you about the Tooth Fairy?"

"My dad? No, my dad told me different stories," Theodore chuckled, placing the child drawing down onto the table.

"Well, the Tooth Fairy isn't a story."

Theodore nodded, stuffing his hands into his suit pant pockets as he pursed his lips. "Right, and uh, do you know anything about itching powder?"

Jesse perked up, a twinkle shining in his eyes at the boyish knowledge of all things pranks. "Yeah, that stuff will totally make you scratch your brains out."

"Pop rocks and coke?"

"You mix them and you'll end up in the hospital. Everyone knows that."

Theodore hummed and didn't say anything further. Instead, he plucked the joy buzzer from his pocket and held it up for Jesse to see and the boy stumbled out of his chair and putting more distance between him and the two hunters, a shaky finger pointed in Theodore's direction.

"You shouldn't have that thing. It can electrocute you, dude."

"Actually, it can't. This thing is merely a wind-up toy. It's totally harmless. Heck, it doesn't even have any batteries."

Jesse's eyebrows furrowed adorably across his little face, bright eyes looking up at Theodore with wonder. "So it can't harm you?"

Theodore shook his head and smiled at the kid. "Nope. Not at all. I swear on, uh, Alyssa's life here. All it does is just shake in your hand. It's honestly kind of lame. Watch."

Delaney didn't even have a second to dodge Theodore's hand as he pressed the toy to her chest and her eyes widened at him in anger. However, nothing happened in the slightest as it merely buzzed against her and she locked her jaw, glaring darkly at Theodore who smiled cutely at her in return. 

"Pretty shocking, huh, Alyssa?" Theodore mocked while Delaney silently murdered him in her head. "What did you say your name was again, kiddo?"

The two hunters spent another few minutes speaking to Jesse as he ate his soup before Delaney finally excused them both from the house. The second her heel covered feet touched the ground outside the porch of Jesse's house, she whirred on Theodore and beat her fists against his chest while he all but watched her do it. Not the least bit phased by her. "What the fuck was that back there, Mitchell?"

Theodore simply shrugged and twirled the buzzer around on his finger with a smirk. "Had a hunch and I went with it."

A fire lit behind Delaney's eyes as she growled, pushing against the chest in annoyance. "You risked my ass over a fucking hunch? What the shit?"

"Pretty sure you're fine, half pint. Besides, now we know who is turning this town into Willy Wonka's factory of horrors," Theodore reminded her, pocketing the now harmless buzzer again and kept his hands in his suit jacket pockets. "It's the kid. Everything Jesse believes is coming true. He thinks the Tooth Fairy looks like Belushi, joy buzzers actually shock people. Boom. That's what happens."

"Yeah, but convince him the joy buzzers don't actually work, and they go from killing machine back to crappy prank toys. Probably doesn't even realize he's doing it, but . . . how is he doing it?"

While Theodore went out to get information on Jesse, Delaney went back home to read through lore books with Dean and Sam to see if they couldn't find anything on what the could be or could be using to make his beliefs become reality. She'd barely gotten through half her lore book when the motel room swung open again to reveal Theodore with a small folder in hand with printed out sheets of information.

"Right, so, I dug up what I could on Jesse Turner, but it's not much. Uh, B student, won last year's Pinewood Derby, but get this — Jesse was adopted. His birth records are sealed."

"So you unsealed them, and . . . ?" Dean prodded, twirling his wrist to motion for Theodore to keep speaking.

"There's not father listed, but Jesse's biological mom is named Julia Wright. She lives in Elk Creek, on the other side of the state."

Delaney hummed and closed her book, tossing it to her side in between her and Dean who sat on the bed with her. "I guess I know where we're going, huh?"

A few hours later, Delaney found herself stood on a rickety old back porch of one Julia Wright. Weeds and old, dried dirt littered the back area of the house and Theodore and Delaney had to step over knocked over rocks and littered trash to get up to the porch in the first place. The old, cracked wood of the porch creaked under their shoes and Delaney pushed the sticky button of the doorbell.

"Whatever you're selling, I'm not buying!" a small, timid voice called from inside the house.

"We're not salesmen. Agents Page and Plant, FBI," Delaney called back to the woman, holding up her fake ID along with Theodore's the small peephole in the door for Julia to see.

"Put your badge in the slot. Your partner's too," Julia requested, voice still soft and small in her reply.

Delaney puffed out her cheeks, but did as Julia said anyways and tossed both her and Theodore's fakes through the mail slot at the bottom of the door. A series of locks disengaging was heard before the white wooden door swung open to reveal a middle-aged woman with dirty blonde hair and sunken dark eyes. She smiled softly to the woman when she handed back Delaney and Theodore's fake badges. "Thank you, um . . . we just had a few questions about your son. Jesse?"

Julia shrunk in on herself, clutching the door as if that was keeping her anchored to the ground, hiding behind it partially. "I don't have a son."

"He was born March 29, 1998, in Omaha. You put him up for adoption? We were just wondering — um, was it a . . . was it a normal pregnancy? Like . . . was there anything strange?"

"Stay away!" Julia yelled, stumbling back from them and going to shove the door in the two hunters' faces.

"Mrs. Wright, wait!" Delaney pushed forward and pressed her hands against the door to keep it from shutting all the way closed. The duo rushed into the house after Mrs. Wright and into the kitchen where Delaney held her hands up in defense as Mrs. Wright grabbed a shaker of salt. "Mrs. Wright, we just wanna talk!"

Mrs. Wright tossed a line of salt at Theodore at Delaney and Delaney squeaked, stepping back in surprise and into Theodore's chest who placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her. A hot feeling erupted in her shoulders from his touch and she quickly stepped off to the side of him, rolling her shoulders to try and rid the warmth that had landed there at his touch. "You're not demons?"

"I mean — I got my own personal demons, but I can confirm that I am not one," Theodore responded, hands dropping back to his sides now that Delaney was stood next to him. "How - how do you know about demons, Julia?"

Julia slowly lowered her shaker of salt when she realized that Delaney and Theodore wouldn't be hurting her, placing the shaker back down onto the wooden counter behind her and leaning her lower back against it. "I was possessed. A demon took control of my body and I hurt people. I killed people. I was there. I heard a woman beg for mercy. I . . . felt a young girl's blood drip down my hands. It's how I knew how to use the salt against you if you were demons. I picked up tricks. It was in my head for nine months."

Delaney face dropped and she cleared her throat, licking her lips as her brain realized just what Julia had been hinting at when she mentioned the exact duration of the demon's stay inside of her. "So your son . . . it was there the whole time?"

"Yeah. The pregnancy, the birth — all of it. I was possessed. The night the baby was born, I was alone. The pain was — the pain was overwhelming. I - I screamed and it came out a laugh . . . because the demon was happy. It used my body to give birth to a child. When it was over, something changed. Maybe the — the demon was tired or if the pain helped me fight it, but . . . somehow I took control. The demon wailed inside me. It pounded against my skull. I thought my head was gonna explode, but . . . I knew. I knew what I had to do. When I was alone with the baby . . . a part of me . . . part of me wanted to kill it, but God help me, I couldn't do that. So . . . I put it up for adoption . . . and I ran."

Theodore exhaled heavily, running a hand through his curls as his brain tried to piece the whole story together properly in his head. "Who was the father?"

Julia shook her head and shrugged. "I was a virgin. Have you seen my son? Is he human?"

"His name's Jesse. He lives in, uh, Alliance. He's a good kid," Delaney promised Julia, her own brain trying to work out how the demon planted its seed into Julia if she had been a virgin. If there was some demonic way to even plant a demon's seed into a virgin human.

After talking to Julia for another few minutes and not getting much else from her, Delaney and Theodore said their goodbyes to the woman and saw their own way out back the way they came. Delaney was silent for a long moment as she descended the porch steps and began to round the side of the house, scratching at her cheek. "We need help."

However, neither one of the hunters were expecting Castiel to be their help as, when they returned, Castiel was stood in the middle of the motel room with Dean and Sam sat silently at the table next to him, clearly waiting for the duo to return back. 

"Huh, seems like Castiel was listening," Delaney commented, kicking the motel room door shut behind her and removing her heels from her aching feet, sighing in relief once she was flat on her feet once again. 

"It's lucky you found the boy," Castiel replied, eyes following Delaney and Theodore as they joined Sam and Dean at the table. "You need to kill him."

Delaney choked on her spit as she balked, blinking up at Castiel in shock. She could see the way that the boys' faces also feel in surprise at the solution Castiel had come up with and Delaney instantly shook her head. "Cas, you can't honestly be serious. He's a little kid."

"Delaney, this child is half demon and half human, but it is far more powerful than either. Other cultures call this hybrid Cambion or Katako. You know him as the antichrist."

Sam waved his hand around for Castiel to slow down for a moment as he scrunched up his face in confusion. "Cas, Jesse is the Devil's son?"

Castiel sighed and shook his head, slapping a hand to his side. "No, of course not. Your bible gets more wrong than it does right. The antichrist is not Lucifer's child. It is just demon spawn, but it is one of Lucifer's greatest weapons in the war against Heaven."

"Well, if this kid is a demonic howitzer, then what the hell is he doing in Nebraska?" Dean inquired.

"The demons lost him. They can't find him, but they're looking for him much like Lucifer is looking for Delaney. The child has power. It hides him from both angels and demons. For now."

"So . . . he's got like a force field around him. Well, that's great. Problem solved," Dean said, not seeing what else they could do, especially with Castiel now in their presence.

"With Lucifer risen, this child grows strong. Soon, he will do more than just a few toys come to life — something that will draw the demons to him. The demons will find the child. Lucifer will twist this boy to his purpose and then, with a word, this child will destroy the host of Heaven."

Delaney laughed incredulously and leant forward in her chair, leaning her arms on the table as she looked up at Castiel who still stood before the table. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Cas. Wait a second here. Are you saying that — that Jesse's gonna nuke the angels?"

Castiel doesn't even need to nod for Delaney to get the confirmation she needs. The answer was in his blue eyes alone and that only sent dread and guilt through her as she mostly blamed herself for the Lucifer thing. If Lucifer hadn't been released from Hell because of her, then Jesse would still be fine. Or as fine as the antichrist can be without Lucifer walking around. "We cannot allow that to happen."

"I understand all of this, Cas, but we're the good guys. We — we don't kill children. There has to be something we can do to save this boy."

Castiel's face morphed at Delaney's words into something short of anger and Delaney blinked in surprise when Castiel took a step closer to the table, hands bracing on the table as he leant closer to Delaney who slowly sat back in her seat. "A year ago, you would have done whatever it took to win this war, Delaney Elizabeth Winchester."

Delaney's jaw ticked slightly at the use of her full name, something about it always just striking the wrong nerve in her. She stared back up at Castiel with hard, green eyes. "Things changed over the past year, Castiel. Unless you forgot what happened."

"Okay, okay, okay, enough," Dean scolded Delaney, turning back to Castiel as he stood to his feet and got Castiel to stand back to his full height again. "Look, Cas, we are not going to kill him, alright? However, we can't leave Jesse here either. We know that.  So . . . we take him to Bobby's. He'll know what to do."

"You'll kidnap him? What is going on in this town, it's what happens when this thing is happy. You cannot imagine what it will do if it's angry. Besides, how will you hold him? With a thought, he could be halfway around the world."

"So we — "

"So we tell him the truth," Delaney cut across Sam who looked to her in bewilderment. "You say Jesse's destined to go dark side — fine, but he hasn't yet, Castiel. So if we lay it out for him — what he is, the apocalypse, everything — he might make the right choice," Delaney argued, the whole situation hitting closer to home than she cared to admit. Jesse, like her, was destined to go dark, evil. However, he still had time to save himself, unlike Delaney who had already succumbed to her own darkness.

Castiel tightened his jaw and stepped closer to Delaney again with narrowed eyes that looked out of place on his usual stoic face. "You didn't, Delaney, and I cannot take that chance again of that happening again. I cannot trust that you'll get him to change his path, much like Dean and Sam couldn't get you to stop your path."

Delaney opened her mouth to rebut, but Castiel was suddenly gone for sight and she collapsed back against her chair, rubbing her hands over her face roughly. "Ugh, for fucks sake. Actually, hate it here."

Knowing that Castiel would have gone after Jesse, the four hunters took off in the Impala towards the house that Delaney and Theodore had visited and rushed in to see Jesse cowered against a corner in the living room. Their eyes scanned around the space for the angel, but didn't see him anywhere in the semi-dark house that was minutely lit thanks to the small lamp in the living room on the small table next to Jesse. 

"Was there a guy here?" Dean asked Jesse who cowered more into the corner at the new comers, Dean and Sam. "In a trench coat? 

Delaney followed Jesse's eyes and she gasped at the sight of a small action figure before Jesse. However, it wasn't a normal action figure as it was a small figure of Castiel with a demon blade raised in his hand ready to strike down on Jesse before he'd been turned into the plastic thing that Delaney picked up into her small hand. She grimaced at the sight of Castiel stuck in whatever state he was in while Dean motioned for Jesse to sit on the couch and Delaney rounded the couch to stand near the fireplace placed before it, placing Castiel down onto the mantel of it as the boys joined her on either side.

"Was he your friend?" Jesse asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he noticed the looks on the four hunters' faces.

"Him? No," Dean swiftly lied, barely sparing Castiel a second look to keep the lie going. 

"I did that, but how did I do that?"

"You're a superhero. I mean, who else could turn someone into a toy?" Theodore said, laughing nervously as he jerked his thumb behind him to the toy version of Castiel behind his head. "Only a superhero could do that, kiddo. You are definitely Superman — minus the cape and the go-go boots. See, my partners and I, we work for a secret government agency. It's our job to find kids with special powers. In fact, we're here to take you to a hidden base in South Dakota, where you will be trained to fight evil."

Jesse's eyes lit up at that and he pushed himself closer to the edge of the cushion on the couch to get closer to Theodore who had squat before him mid-speech. "Like the X-Men?"

"Exactly like X-Men," Theodore agreed, nodding along with whatever would get Jesse in their good hands. "In fact, the, uh, guy we're taking you to — he's even in a wheelchair. You will be a hero. You'll save lives. You'll get the girl. Sounds like fun, right?"

Before Theodore could say more, he went flying backwards and pinned to the wall by an invisible force. The front door slamming closed alerted all the occupants' attention to see Julia with black eyes walking into the house with a smirk. "They're lying to you, Jesse."

"Jesse, wait — " Delaney tried, but was cut off as her, Sam and Dean followed in Theodore's lead and found themselves pinned to the wall next, all four fighting against the invisible force pressing against their chests. "Okay, I know I'm usually told I look like art, but you shit heads need to stop pinning me to walls."

Julia tilted her head as she stopped in front of Delaney and faked a pout, trailing a manicured finger along Delaney's cheek as she growled at her. "You stay right here, pretty thing. Boss says I can't kill you. Orders, unfortunately, even though I would just love to rip your heart out right here and now in front of your brothers and little ex-fling. Randy was my friend, you know."

"Huh, manipulative dick must be a requirement for your little friendship circle then," Delaney breathed, grunting when Julia pushed more force onto her chest.

"Don't test me, Baby Winchester. I'll still hurt that pretty face of yours even though I cant kill you," Julia tutted, mockingly tapping Delaney's cheek before she turned to the boys and grinned. "However, Lucifer never said anything about you three." With a flick of her wrist, the three boys flew from one wall and to the other across the room before slamming their backs against the wall next to Delaney again with harsh groans of pain.

"Leave them alone!" Jesse cried, earning Julia's attention again and causing her to turn and face Jesse.

Julia walked over to Jesse who took a step back from the woman, but he didn't get far before her hands cupped his face gently. "Jesse, you're beautiful. You have your father's eyes."

"Who are you?" Jesse asked, still regarding Julia with a hesitant stature and tone.

"I'm your mother. You're half human . . . half one of us."

"She means demons, Jesse!" Delaney cried, yelping when Julia clenched her fist and sent a wave a pain over the four hunters and effectively shutting them up for the time being.

Julia huffed and returned her attention to Jesse, placing her hands on her knees so she was eyelevel with the boy. "Those people you call your parents — they lied to you, too. You're not theirs — not really."

Jesse scrunched his face up in anger as he stared at Julia, unblinking. "My mom and dad love me."

"Do they? Is — is that why they leave you alone all day because they love you so much? These people — these imposters — they told you that the Tooth Fairy was real and that your toys could hurt you and a hundred other things that aren't true. They love you so much, they made your whole life a lie. Look into your heart, Jesse. You have always known you weren't theirs. You have always known you were different. Everyone has lied to you. They aren't FBI agents and you're not a superhero."

Jesse was silent for a long moment, eyes trailing over Julia's face as if searching to see if she was lying to him. "Then what am I?"

"You're powerful. You can have anything you want. You can do anything you want."

"Don't listen to her, Jesse!" Dean shouted, only regretting it when Julia fisted her hand again and his bones crunched slightly beneath his skin as he grunted.

Julia kept her hand raised and shot her attention back to Jesse again as she stood to her full height. "They treated you like a child. Nobody trusted you. Everybody's lied to you. Doesn't that make you angry?"

Jesse didn't respond, just simply clenched her fists at his sides as his jaw twitched, a glare on Julia who stood before him. The room began to shake around them, the lights shaking in their holders as they flickered dangerously and the chandelier above twinkled and clinked together above Julia's head as she smirked deviously.

"See? It does make you angry, but I'm telling you the truth, Jesse. Wouldn't it be better if there were no lies? Come with me . . . and you can wash it all clean. Start over. Imagine that — a world without lies."

Delaney pushed against the invisible force, but it did her no use as a crack went up the wall between her and Theodore and a family photo of the Turners crashed to the ground at her feet as the house only shook more violently with Jesse's increasing anger. "okay, Jesse, she's right. We lied to you, but I'll tell you the truth." She gasped suddenly when Julia clenched her fist and tried to cut off Delaney's words, even though the Winchester female didn't know when to give up. "I just want . . . to tell . . ."

"Stop it," Jesse demands quietly and Delaney's suddenly let down from the wall, causing her to stumble once she's back on her boot clad feet. "I want to hear what she has to say."

"You're stronger than I thought," Julia commented.

Delaney panted for her breath for a moment, righting herself back on her feet properly as she took one step away from the wall and closer to Jesse. "Listen, we lied to you and I am so sorry. So here is the truth. I am Delaney Winchester. These are my brothers, Sam and Dean, and the partner that was with me, he's named Theodore. Sometimes I like to call him Theosnore, but that's for another time. We all hunt monsters."

Julia scoffed and crossed her arms across her chest, shaking her head. "Except when you are the monster, Baby Winchester. Bet you just wanna take a big ol' chomp out of my neck right now, don't you?"

Delaney set her jaw and ignored Julia, gesturing to said woman. "And that woman right there, her name is Julia. She's your birth mother, but the thing inside of her, the thing that you are talking to — it's a demon."

"A demon?" 

"She has done nothing but lie to you since you met her. Don't listen to her. Punish her."

Jesse whipped his head to Julia and snapped at her to sit down and shut up, pushing her down into the chair behind her with his powers, keeping her mouth closed and hands pressed to the arms of the chair.

Delaney balked at the action, but licked her lips and exhaled heavily before she continued. "Um, there's, uh, kind of a . . . a war between angels and demons, and . . . you're a part of it."

"I'm just a kid."

"You can go with her if you want. I can't stop you. No one can, honestly, but if you do . . . millions of people will die," Delaney concluded, biting the inside of her lip as she watched Jesse process all of her information.

"She said I was half demon. Is that true?"

Delaney felt her heart ache in her chest at the innocent way Jesse looked up at her and she wanted so desperately to take the boy's pain. The boy's darkness from inside of him as she knew how terrible it was to have. "Yes, but you are half human, too. You can do the right thing. You have got choices, Jesse, but if you make the wrong ones, it will haunt you for the rest of your life."

Jesse's chest shuddered with shaky breaths, tears perking up in his bright eyes as he continued to look up at Delaney innocently. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I have to believe someone can make the right choice. I didn't, Jesse."

Jesse clenched his fist again and turned to face Julia, seemingly believing Delaney's words and causing her to slump in relief. "Get out of her."

Julia was sent back towards the wall still in her chair, the demon expelling from her mouth in a thick, dark cloud that escaped up through the chimney and out of sight. The second all of the smoke was gone, Dean, Sam and Theodore were released from the wall and sent stumbling the same way Delaney had when she had landed on her feet again. 

Sam breathed heavily as he righted himself again, pushing himself to his full height with the use of Dean's shoulder. "How did you do that?"

"I just did," Jesse said, shrugging as he didn't know himself.

"Kid . . . you're awesome," Dean praised, placing his hands on his hips as he chuckled breathlessly.

Jesse walked over to Julia who had passed out in the chair and pressed his fingers to her neck, relaxing slightly when he felt the heart beat against his fingertips and glanced over his shoulder to the four hunters. "Is she gonna be okay?"

Theodore flickered his gaze over to the woman, seeing how her chest still moved the tiniest bit to show she was still, in fact, alive and nodded. "Yeah, she will be eventually."

Dean crouched down next to Theodore and picked up Castiel who had fallen off the mantel when the demon escaped, holding him up for Jesse to see with a sheepish expression. "Look, uh, truth is, he's kind of a buddy of ours. Is there any way you could turn him back?"

"He tried to kill me," Jesse argued, stepping back from Dean and the small Castiel figure.

"Right. Uh . . . but he's a — he's a good guy. He was just confused," Dean tried to convince, but sighed when Jesse didn't so much as budge, just staring at Dean unamused. "Right, it's been a long night. We'll . . . talk about it later."

"What now?"

Delaney chewed the inside of her lip and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets, kicking at the floorboards softly. "We take you somewhere safe, get you trained up. You would be handy in a fight, Jesse. You're powerful. More powerful than . . . pretty much anything we have ever seen. That makes you . . . "

"A freak," Jesse finished for Delaney, deflating visibly and causing Delaney's heart to only weigh heavier in her chest as she saw herself in Jesse. It only drove her to help the kid even more than she already wanted to.

"Maybe to others, but not to us. See, we're kind of freaks ourselves. You can't stay here, sweetie, as much I wish you could live a normal life here. The demons know where you are now and  more will be coming."

Jesse shook his head as he fiddled with the hem of his shirt, looking down at his shoes. "I don't want to go without my mom and dad."

"There's nothing more important than family. We get that and if you really want to take them with you, we will back your play, but you got to understand — it will be dangerous for them, too. Our dad . . . he would take my brothers everywhere he went, but a demon killed him. Once you're in this fight . . . you're in it till the end, win or lose. I can't tell you what to do because it's your choice in the end. It's not fair and trust me do I know how that feels, but it's still your choice."

"Can I go see my parents? I, um . . . I need to . . . say goodbye," Jesse shyly questioned, looking up at Delaney through his eyelashes as he only felt comfortable addressing her in the moment.

"Of course, sweetie."

The four hunters waited in a tense silence as Jesse remained upstairs, saying goodbye to the life he had once known. Much like Delaney, he had no idea why things happened the way he did as he always thought he was a normal kid. A normal human kid, where he technically was, but he also had the darkness inside of him as well. His world had just been flipped upside down and it made memories of  that night perch in Delaney's mind that she had to swipe away, the familiar clawing of her anxiety bubbling her chest. She shut her eyes and took a steadying breath before Dean or Sam could notice her begin to freak suddenly and she jumped slightly when she felt a presence next to her, opening her eyes to see Dena approached her.

"He's been up there a long time now, don't you think?" Dean inquired, eyes flickering around the whole group in case he was the only one thinking that.

As all their eyes met with a silent agreement of Jesse being gone way too long for him to just be saying goodbye, they all rushed upstairs and into Jesse's bedroom to see it empty. Everything still looked in place with his bed still neatly made, surfing posters plastered to wall above his headboard and the moon casting eery shadows across them as the moon shined through the window across from where the group stood, a desk perched before it.

"He's gone."

Theodore jumped at the sudden voice of Castiel and he spun around to the door to the bedroom again, facing the angel who had gotten his body back suddenly. "To where?"

"I don't know. Jesse put everyone in town back to normal — the ones still alive, at least. Then he vanished."

Delaney puffed out her cheeks, eyes scanning the room again before it fell to his bed where she tilted her head. Stepping around Theodore, Delaney walked over to it and plucked the folded up note that had been placed on Jesse's pillow and held it up for the boys to see, eyebrows furrowing. She unfolded the note, eyes trailing along the child scribble that Jesse had done in his haste to leave and she frowned. "It says that he had to leave to keep his parents safe, that he loves them and he's sorry."

"How do we find him?" Dean asked, gaze bouncing from his baby sister and over to Castiel for answers.

"With the boy's powers, we can't. Not unless he wants to be found."

Delaney sat in the back of the Impala later that night as Dean drove them out of Alliance and towards wherever the next hunt showed up. She leant her elbow on the windowsill, chin propped in her hand as she watched the town pass by, legs strewn over Theodore's lap again. She had originally done it, knowing it would bother him, but she was genuinely surprised when he merely made her feet more comfortable in his lap and didn't say a word. Normally, Delaney would have commented, but her mind was too focused on Jesse and where he went, that she barely felt the urge to do so. A possible reason as to why Theodore didn't fight with her in the first place — she was already distracted and off to begin with.

"You think Jesse's gonna be okay?" Dean questioned, breaking the silence that filled the car the second they were out of Alliance and into the next town. 

Delaney inhaled deeply and dropped her elbow from the windowsill, leaning her back against the side of the door, wrapping Sam's discarded jacket around her form like a blanket and sank lower into the seat. "I hope so. Don't want him to make the same mistakes I did and he's a kid."

"You know, we destroyed that kid's life by telling him the truth," Dean warned Delaney, red and blue lights flashing in his face from a nearby cop car and he squinted against the lights to see through the slight glare it brought to his eyes.

"We didn't have a choice, Dean."

"Yeah. You know, I'm starting to get why parents lie to their kids. You want them to believe the worst thing out there is mixing pop rocks and coke — protect them from the real evil. You want them going to bed feeling safe. If that means lying to them, so be it. The more I think about it . . . the more I wish Dad lied to Sammy and I like he did to you, Della."

Delaney made a noise as Sam agreed with Dean, both boys wanting the luxury Delaney had growing up where she hadn't needed to worry about hunting or monsters. She got to grow up normally, play dress up with the boys when they were willing to do so. She got to draw her brothers and John pictures that Dean hung on the motel room or Bobby's fridge whenever she'd finish a new one. She got to go to college like Dean and Sam had secretly dreamed to, practically living through Delaney anytime they'd visit her at Stanford. 

However, Delaney wished she did know sooner than she had. Maybe she would have made better choices than the ones she did. Maybe she wouldn't have been so ignorant to trust someone like Randy. Maybe she would have gone down a better path when it came to the darkness inside of her. Maybe she wouldn't have almost lost everything if she knew better. Knew more than what she already did.

Delaney's life was slowly filling up with more and more "what ifs" and she wasn't sure how many more of them she could handle. 

AUTHORS NOTE

delaney is back and she is not vibing. then again, she hasn't vibed in about three years so this is pretty on brand now that i think about it. anyways, enjoy delaney trying to save jesse because he reminded her of herself and wanted him to choose the options she was too ignorant to. 

i also have made delaney elizabeth winchester a board on my pinterest ( skaikruobrien ) so go check that out if you're a cool kid. lowkey obsessed and will be constantly adding to it