Chapter 1

Dean was tired. Not only had Sam and he been driving all day, causing his ass to ache, and yet at the same time giving him the itch to walk, but then as soon as they got to the crappy motel of the day, Sam had been intent on finding a new case. They had just been on a zombie case the day before, and busy on a whole crapload of demon exorcisms in this one tiny town in Kentucky the day before that. Dean was nearly falling asleep at the trashy plywood table by the window of the dimly lit room of the "King's Motel", the seedy motel in upstate New York that they were staying at.

"Sammy, can I go to bed?" Dean was barely keeping awake as he was, constantly nodding off and staring absentmindedly off into the distance instead of scanning nationwide newspapers like he was supposed to.

"No, Dean. We need to find our next case."

"Dude, we just finished one like, a day ago. Not even twenty-four hours have passed since then. I'm tired! I just one want one day where I can drink, eat pie, and just... relax." Dean leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms up and yawning obnoxiously. Sam glanced up from his laptop, straightened his posture, and glared at Dean.

"You drink everyday anyway."

Dean smirked, a little sadly. "Yeah, but you know what I mean."

"Dean, I'm trying to get work done."

"Yeah, so was I for the past five hours, but I think I'm done for the night." Dean got up, nearly stumbling, made his way to the bed and collapsed.

Sam rested his head on his hand, and turned towards Dean in his chair. "Did you notice our cases are slowing down?"

Dean grumbled something nonsensical into his pillow.

"Dean, use your words."

Dean tiredly flipped onto his back. "Nah, not really. I don't know. It seems like we've been really, really, really freaking busy."

"Yeah, for like the past two days we've been busy, but not..." Sam sighed, and leaned back. "These cases have been more spread apart. And moving east. We've hardly had any demonic possession cases in the past month, and then the first one we find, it's a giant pack of them. Hardly seems like a coincidence."

"Sam, nothing is a coincidence in our lives."

"Yeah, exactly my point."

Dean sighed. "What, exactly, is your point again?"

"The demons... from what we can see... they're... travelling." Sam frowned at his screen.

"What is it? One big demon road trip? Where are they going?"

"I don't know. Definitely towards the East coast-"

"The East coast is pretty large, Sammy."

"No duh. Dean? You gonna let me finish?"

Dean sighed, and sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes, staring at Sam, his expression clouded with exhaustion and boredom. "Fine."

"Well. That's the weird thing. They're just kind of going... all over. From the maps Bobby sent us-" Sam clicked away, turning the computer to Dean, showing him a jumble of colorful maps. "Show that most demonic signs are now moving East, like I said, but then they just... disappear. It's like they're leaving the U.S."

Dean was silent for a moment, and stayed lying on his back, simply staring at the ceiling.

"So?"

"So? Dean, this is the most demonic activity we've seen in- well, since the demons were trying to break the 66 Seals."

"Yeah, but they're leaving America right?"

"Well, there have been a bunch of mass murders in London that look like demon-"

"Sam, if they're leaving the States, then it's not really our problem."

"Not our problem- Dean, we're hunters. We hunt demons. We follow the demons, and if they're going to the East coast, then so are we." Sam stared at Dean, exasperated.

"We're not freaking superheroes, Sam. We can't travel the world to gank these guys. We have enough shit going on here. I mean, yeah, whatever you say, our cases have been slowing down. But if we leave, what if a shifter shows up in New Mexico? There are few enough hunters here, and it's just going to be one big deal to find out where they're going, which could be anywhere in-"

"Sam's right." A deep, resonant voice interjected as a flapping of wings was heard. Sam jumped, knocking into the wall behind him. Dean laughed, rolling back onto his stomach. A man, with deep blue eyes and tousled black hair in a long, tan overcoat was now in the room, staring with intensity at both brothers.

"What the hell, Cas?" Sam gasped out, holding his chest.

"I don't understand the question." Castiel tilted his head to the side with curiosity.

Sam shook off his fear, and laughed a little. "Great timing, Cas. Dean was monologuing."

"My point was that I don't think we need to go backpacking in France to do our job, Sam."

"Well, not France. London. And maybe not backpacking. I think you'll be able to find appropriate accommodations." Sam looks up at Cas.

"What do you mean?"

Cas shuffled, slightly awkwardly, to the other twin bed, regarding it with distaste before sitting down gingerly.

"This room seems less than satisfactory, Dean."

"It was this, or drive another five hours or so until we got to the next town. And I wasn't driving anymore today." Dean said, sighing deeply. "I guess I'm just not going to sleep tonight. That's fine."

"What do you mean, Cas?" Sam looked worried.

"Well, these demons, the ones Bobby has shown to you on his maps, they are leaving the United States of America."

"Great. We know. And I bet you're going to ask us to follow them." Dean grumbled.

"Well, yes. I was thinking about the concept. I'm glad you think it's... great."

Dean rolled his eyes.

"Castiel, where are they going exactly? We have heard about London, is that it?" Sam asked.

"The angels have been noticing patterns. The demons who have access to Earth are collecting around England."

"The demons are visiting the Brits?" Dean sat up.

"Well, I wouldn't describe it as visiting, I am quite sure that the demons are not socially calling the English."

"Then, why are they there?" Sam got up, moving towards Castiel, and pushed Dean's feet with little care to the side, and sat at the foot of the bed.

Castiel cleared his throat. "Not sure. But something's going on there, something big. They seem to be gravitating towards some kind of a higher power."

"Higher power?" Dean scoffed. "What, like a powerful demon? A god?"

"Well- to be honest..."

Cas trailed off. Sam glanced at Dean in confusion, frowning slightly. He turned back to Cas, his dark eyebrows raised.

"To be honest?"

"We're... not quite sure."

"What?" Dean laughed, putting his hand behind his. Castiel turned to him, still face a straight face, yet not slightly darkened. "Are you serious?" Dean sat up, squinting slightly at the angel. "The angels don't know what this thing is?"

"Well, at least my garrison stationed on Earth. Whatever it is... it's managed to get here unnoticed, until now."

A silence sat on the room, as the group took in this information. Sam nervously combed his brown hair back with his fingers.

"So it's not a demon? Or an angel?"

"As far as we can tell, no, it is not."

Sam nervously rattled off any other supernatural creature he could think of. "Or a ghost, or a wendigo, or a vampire nest, or a-"

"Clearly, none of those things are strong enough to attract that much demon attention."

Dean jumped up from the bed, and started to pace back and forth across the room.

"Wait, wait, wait. How come you guys haven't just gone over there and checked it out? Since when are angels afraid of a couple-"

"A couple hundred." Castiel corrected Dean, leaving Sam to turn on him with panicked eyes.

"Okay, a couple hundred," Dean continued, more nervously, "demons?"

"Well, it's not the demons they're scared of. It's whatever is attracting them."

Dean laughed, staring at Cas. "So you're going to ask us to go in to a shit storm of demons to fight something that you and the rest of your bird brained flock are too pussy to even approach?"

Castiel leaned in towards Dean. His blue eyes danced with more anger now, a newer emotion to Castiel, but a side effect of spending copious amounts of time with humans. "We believe that you, as nearly ordinary humans, will detect less attention than angels. We are being of immense power. Immense, very obvious, power."

Dean stood up, moving to stand next to Sam. He spoke, with obvious resentment. "We have shit to do here too, Cas. We're not just Heaven's delivery boys. In fact, I believe, that is you dicks' jobs." Dean began to turn away from Cas, heading towards the bathroom. "Now find some other asshats to be your bait for luring out-"

Cas appeared only inches in front of Dean, and his eyes bore into Dean's.

"This is a direct command from the Heavens. Have faith in us." Cas spoke with a slow deliberate tone, speaking only to Dean. Cas knew if he could convince Dean, Sam would follow. That's how they worked. When Cas first met them. Dean was the leader, Sam was the follower. Though sometimes, Cas wasn't sure anymore. "We are the messengers of God. And we will protect you two from any harm. Believe that."

Dean backed up from Cas, his cheeks a little flushed, accentuating the little freckles that dotted his nose. Cas tilted his head slightly, looking towards the ceiling, staring at the water stain building on the off-white wall.

"Cas?" Sam moved towards him, touching Cas' arm lightly. Cas seemed to suddenly snap out of this trance, and looked over Sam once.

"I must leave, I detect something. Be in England. I'll meet you on the plane."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just give us a-" But in a flutter of wings and a rush of wind, Castiel was gone, leaving only Sam and Dean looking at the empty spot on the grossly neglected carpet.

"Well, that was a dick move." Dean stood up straighter, staring at Sam.

"I guess we'd better pack." Sam moved to start packing, but Dean blocked him with his arm, glaring at him.

"We're just going to take orders from these winged idiots now? We're not their errand boys, Sam. We have our own shit to do." Sam shrugged off Dean's arm, and headed towards the bags. "Oh come on, Sam. You're just going to let them walk all over you?" Dean said, annoyed. He followed Sam around the room, not unlike a puppy following his master. "Come on Sammy, let's just sleep, and think about this in the morning-"

"Dean, pack."

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea-"

"Come on Dean. I mean, literally, God is asking us to do this. Also, Cas has saved our asses enough times that we owe him one." Dean leaned back on the wall, staring at Sam packing for a moment, then giving a dramatic sigh and grabbing his bag.

"Fine. You know, you used to listen to the shit I had to say."

"Yeah, when I was like twelve, Dean." Sam chuckled, grabbing his t-shirts and shoving them into the burlap duffle.

"Whatever." Dean pouted.

"I'll go check us out."

"Wait- Sam," Dean said nervously, pulling at his collar a little.

Sam stopped for moment, looking back at Dean. "Yeah? What?"

"Does this mean we're taking a plane?"

A childish grin spread across Sam's face.

"I mean, we're not taking the Impala there."

"Goddammit," said Dean as he sat, helplessly, back on one of the chairs.