The little town of Great Falls, Montana, had a library, which was where Dean and Sam left Emma while they visited the morgue. The John Doe struck by the Impala that morning had turned up again, this time mauled by a bear.

Bored, the teenager settled in with a book. Being sidelined from a hunt rankled even more after Purgatory, but she had to admit there was no way she could pass for an FBI agent. It wasn't long, however, before her father and uncle were back to pick her up. This time, Emma saw as she approached the car, she'd be sharing the back seat with the dead man from the roadside, mysteriously revived once more.

"Emma, meet Shane."

"Hello," she said politely.

"He dies," Dean summed up as his daughter took her seat.

"Every day, for as long as I can remember," Shane said matter-of-factly. "After a few hours, I'm back."

Instead of a motel, the Dean located a lodge nearby. The brothers got Shane tucked away safely out of sight in a cabin, then settled in to do some research in the cabin next door. They didn't have much information to go on. The man had amnesia. Shane wasn't even his real name, just a name he'd been given because, as he put it, people had to call him something. Emma listened to her father and uncle theorize about witches and curses for a while, then drifted off to sleep.

Hours later, they all awakened to the sound of fighting coming from the cabin next door. Within moments they'd all rushed to Shane's aid. Dean charged through the door first, a knife drawn, but the slender attacker kicked his legs out from under him. Turning to see Sam and Emma in the doorway, she flung up a hand and they were propelled backward, flying off the small front porch of the cabin and landing hard on the ground in front of the steps.

Sam picked himself up and charged back up the steps with Emma right on his heels, but by the time they got inside, the fight was over. Shane's attacker had disappeared.

Dean turned to Shane. "Who the hell was that?" he demanded.

Emma was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement. Whoever the intruder was, she'd kicked ass! "She had superhuman strength, didn't she?" Like me, she added silently to herself, although no Amazon Emma had ever heard of could knock people down with just a wave of her hand. Or teleport, for that matter.

Shane shrugged, baffled, in response to Dean's question. "She—she said that she knew me."

"Yeah, how?" Sam closed the cabin door.

"I don't know, but I could have sworn that she was upset that I didn't know her back." Shane's breathing was labored. "I just need a minute," he gasped. "I've never been in a fight in my whole life."

Dean and Emma exchanged puzzled looks over Shane's head. It was obvious he'd had some serious training, whether he remembered it or not. Then they all looked on in helpless concern as he collapsed.

"We need to think" Sam said. "Dean, what do we know of that has Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?"

The Winchesters were sitting in the cabin, looking at Shane, who was laid out on one of the twin beds, looking peaceful in death, his face in repose.

"I don't know," Dean smirked at his brother. "...You?"

Sam scoffed. "Okay, yeah, that description could fit either of us," he countered as Emma tried and failed to stifle a giggle.

Just then there was a quiet knock at the door. Emma watched as her father went to answer it, his footsteps silent as he drew his gun, concealing it behind the door as he opened it. The woman standing there with a small child pressed up shyly against her legs was hardly a threat and he slipped the weapon into his waistband as she spoke.

"Agent Bonham? This is going to sound really strange, but I'm looking for a corpse that went missing today. The coroner said that you were the last one to see it. I'm Hayley," she said, peering over Dean's shoulder. She gestured to Shane, lying temporarily dead on the faded bedspread. "I'm the mother of his son."

Emma and Dean leaned against the railing, watching Shane push his son Oliver on the swings while Hayley hovered protectively nearby. Both father and daughter sipped from mugs. Emma's held hot cocoa. Dean's, Sam was fairly sure, held whiskey. They both turned as he joined them on the small porch.

"Did you find anything?" Dean asked.

"Well, it looks like we were right about the curse thing. From what I can tell, we're looking at a Titan."

"A Titan? Like, a God?"

"More like a proto-God, like the Gods before the Gods," Sam began.

"They were the children and grandchildren of Gaia," Emma broke in. "They ruled Greece before Zeus and the rest of the Olympians overthrew them and cast them into Tartarus."

Sam nodded agreement while Dean chuckled. "Nerds," he taunted fondly.

It turned out that Shane was actually the Titan Prometheus, who had stolen fire from Mount Olympus and saved humankind. As punishment, Zeus, the king of the gods, had chained Prometheus to a mountainside, cursing him to a daily cycle of death and rebirth. After thousands of years, an avalanche freed Prometheus from his chains. Hayley was the sole survivor of a group of climbers caught in that same avalanche. After making their way down the mountain, the two shared a night of passion, that is, until Prometheus died in Hayley's arms. Unnerved by her lover's supernatural curse, Hayley fled, only seeking out the man she'd named Shane when their son inherited the same curse.

It took several days of intense research, but Dean eventually found a translation of a ritual that would summon Zeus. With Shane and Hayley's help, the Winchesters had gathered the components necessary for both the summoning ritual and for a weapon that could kill the immortal king of the Greek gods.

"I can't believe this," Emma said now, as Dean and Sam finished sharpening the wooden stakes they'd use to kill Zeus if he refused to lift the curse from Oliver. "Dad, you saw me in Purgatory! I fought just as many monsters as Sam did. You can't keep treating me like a child and leaving me behind! Tell him, Sam," she pleaded, turning to her uncle.

Sam shook his head. "Sorry, Emma. What your dad says, goes." It was the same old argument as always, Sam thought, Dean's endless ambivalence about his daughter following in his footsteps into 'the family business'.

"You're letting Ollie go, but not me?" Emma scoffed, incredulous. "He's only seven, Dad, and he's useless! He can't fight. He can't even talk!"

"We have to take the kid so Zeus can break the curse," Dean growled, his patience growing thin. He looked to his brother for support. "Tell her, Sam."

"No way. I'm not getting drawn into this." Sam stood up, concealing the two stakes he'd completed inside his jacket. "I'm going to go next door and go over the plan one more time with Shane."

"I know you can fight, Emma Jo. But this is no ordinary hunt. We've never gone up against a god curse before," Dean said gruffly. "Trust me, there'll be plenty of other hunts." He'd made up his mind. Nothing she could say would change it, so the teenager deployed the only weapon she had left: attitude. Throwing herself down with enough force to make the sagging motel sofa groan, she slouched, not just her expression but every line of her body radiating sullen animosity, reminding Dean of Sam when he was her age and doing his best to raise their father's blood pressure to dangerous levels.

"Whatever," Emma huffed.

Dean felt his own blood pressure rising. He was the adult here, he reminded himself. "I'm going to go pick up something for dinner. Stay put," he ordered, strategically turning away before the teen could roll her eyes and cause him to blow an aneurysm.

Emma was still sulking after a dinner of Chinese take-out. Dean studiously ignored her. It made for a tense evening in the motel room they were all sharing, but, Sam reflected wryly, uncomfortable silence beat the window-rattling screaming matches his own teenaged self had had with John. Dean settled in to watch a game on the staticky television and Sam had just opened up his laptop when Emma gasped.

The teen quickly stifled the sound and clamped her hand over her wrist, but both men could see the light spreading up her forearm.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean reached her first, grabbing her hand and undoing the band of the chunky sports watch Emma wore to conceal the Amazon sigil branded on her wrist. The scar glowed red and angry-looking, as if the wound left by the brand was fresh, the veins radiating from Emma's wrist flaring with white light. Even as they stared down at it, the uncanny effect began to fade away. "Why's it doing that?" Dean's voice was harsh with worry.

"I don't know!" Emma protested.

"Sam?" Dean turned to his brother for an explanation. "Is this, like, a regular thing?"

"No. I mean, I don't think it is. Emma?"

"This is the first time it's happened since Wyoming. Or Utah. Wherever it was. And I don't know why it does that," she snapped at Dean. "It doesn't hurt. It's nothing." She retrieved her watch from the bed and buckled it back over her wrist.

Dean scowled. "Funny coincidence that it happens again just as we're going up against the king of the ancient Greek gods."

"You think there's a connection between the Amazons and Zeus?" Sam asked.

"Maybe. Or Artemis, Zeus' daughter," Dean reasoned. "I mean, some Xena-wannabe went after Shane, back at the lodge."

Emma shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. Artemis had nothing to do with the Amazons. The first Amazons were the daughters of Harmonia and Ares."

"And most of the Greek Pantheon despised Ares. So, what do we do? Bug out?" Sam remembered how they'd skipped town the last time Emma's scar had flared, but judging by the stubborn set of his brother's jaw, that wasn't going to happen again.

And sure enough, "No," Dean growled. "We stick to the plan. If some ancient Greek god really is gunning for Emma, we might as well face 'em now. I figure we're as ready as we'll ever be."

"You mean I get to come along?"

"Yeah, Candy Crush, you get to come along." Dean's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You didn't do the scar thing on purpose, did you?"

"What? No!" Emma was affronted.

"All right, all right, I believe you. Go wake up Shane and the others. We might as well get this show on the road."

Dean lit the copper bowl of spell components, completing the summoning ritual, and thunder rolled loudly overhead, shaking the abandoned warehouse. Lightning flashed and Zeus appeared inside the circle of protection Sam had painted on the cement floor.

Emma blinked at the sight of the legendary king of the gods. Zeus had always been depicted as an muscular figure draped in a chiton, with long, flowing, white hair and beard. This modernized version was far less imposing. In fact, she thought with contempt, in a suit and tie Zeus looked more like a Leviathan than a god.

Zeus' character quickly proved just as small and petty as his appearance as he argued with Dean.

"Don't be that guy," Dean said, trying to appeal to the god's sense of justice, but when Zeus still refused to lift the curse from Oliver, he shrugged. "Hey, you can rot here for all I care."

"Yes," Zeus taunted, "and the child will continue to suffer."

"Let's roll." Dean turned and walked away, followed by Sam and Shane. Emma moved to follow the men, but turned back when Zeus spoke again.

"He needs me, and you know it," the god told Hayley, stretching out a hand to Oliver.

She stood there near the edge of the circle, clinging to her son, her eyes darting between Zeus and the three men striding away across the warehouse.

Hayley didn't get it, Emma realized. Thinking quickly, she darted over and grabbed Oliver by the hand, tugging the little boy along after her as she jogged to catch up with the others. Hayley had no choice but to follow, leaving Zeus trapped inside the circle. "Don't worry," Emma whispered as they all neared the exit. "Dad's just calling his bluff."

"We'll let the bastard stew for a while," Dean reassured Hayley in a low voice. "Let the guy think about what kind of petty douchebag leaves a curse on a little kid. He'll change his—"

Before he could finish, the goddess Artemis appeared in the doorway, dressed from head to toe in black leather. She flung out a hand and sent the Winchesters and Shane flying. They hit the floor hard, stunned for several long seconds by the force of the impact. Collecting themselves, they scrambled to their feet, but Artemis had already teleported away. Shane's body convulsed as his curse chose that moment to kick in for the day and he fell back onto the floor in a lifeless heap.

"Oh, dude," Sam groaned.

Artemis had teleported across the warehouse to where Zeus was trapped. Scuffing the paint with the sole of her boot, she broke the circle, freeing him. The vengeful god wasted no time, shooting lightning bolts at Dean, Sam, and Emma. Pain tore through Emma's body as she and her father and uncle were lifted off the ground, limbs jerking helplessly as the lightning crackled through them. Every nerve was on fire and Emma screamed, her Amazon training forgotten in the agony. The torment seemed to last an eternity, but finally Zeus turned his attention to Hayley and Oliver, leaving the three hunters to drop to the floor, their bodies still writhing and twitching with the aftereffects of the near-electrocution.

"Bring forth the child, please," Zeus called cheerfully to Hayley.

"Hayley, don't do it," Dean groaned as he struggled to get his legs under him. He half-crawled to Shane's body, as if to check on the lifeless man, but Emma saw him slide the wooden stake from its hiding place inside the Titan's jacket. The Winchesters managed to get themselves standing, and Dean passed Emma the stake. Armed with the supernatural weapons, the three moved to encircle Zeus as he questioned Hayley about her son.

"Artemis…" the king of the gods gestured negligently. Clearly he hadn't been as distracted by Hayley and Oliver as they'd hoped.

Artemis used her telekinesis and the Winchesters found themselves slammed back once more, this time into the rough cinderblock wall of the warehouse. The goddess strode over to them, releasing them with a flick of her fingers. "Move."

They had no choice but to move as Artemis commanded, the force of her telekinesis pushing at their backs. Sam spoke up. "So, you know who this is, Dean, walking us to our deaths?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

Dean's tone was as sullen as Emma's got whenever she lost an argument with her father. The thought would have amused Sam if the situation wasn't so dire. He forged ahead. "It's our god, Artemis—the goddess of hunters."

"Oh, that's fascinating," Dean drawled, sarcastic.

"See, she's who we'd pray to for courage when hunting the Gorgon or the Minotaur. Of course, she's not really worship-worthy anymore, having lost a step and all," he went on, but Artemis had had enough.

"The hell I have," she snarled, and all three Winchesters found themselves smashed face-first into the wall again.

"Really, Sam?" Dean groused, "Trash-talking a god? Seriously?"

"So you're still at full power?" Sam taunted, "Really? So the goddess of hunters couldn't find a shack in Montana? Maybe it's that you didn't want to find him." He grunted as she pressed him harder against the wall with her telekinesis.

"Good, Sam, you're doing great," Dean muttered.

"He loves you too, you know. He told us."

"You lie," Artemis snapped, but she looked uncertain. "What did he say to you?"

"That this wasn't the first time he'd escaped that mountain, and that you let him go free as long as you could hide your affair from the old man."

Artemis scoffed. "The hell he said. His brain is mush."

"Oh, yeah? Then how did I know? What, did you ever spill it to anyone? Homer? Hesiod? Herodotus? Of course not."

Dean stared at Sam as if he'd lost his mind.

"Homer and Hesiod were famous Greek poets," Emma filled him in, speaking out of the side of her mouth that wasn't smashed painfully up against the rough brick of the wall.

Her father answered the same way. "Thanks, Emma, but I don't think now is the best time for a history lesson."

Meanwhile, Sam was still taunting the goddess. "Go ahead. Kill us. And let your father kill Prometheus, and slaughter that little boy, over and over again," he told her. "That won't leave a mark."

Artemis relented, releasing the force holding them pressed up against the wall. An instant later, she'd disappeared, teleporting back into the warehouse. The Winchesters ran after her. Zeus was standing over the little boy, Oliver, lightning cupped in his hands. Shane had apparently just resurrected and was on his hands and knees, trying to rise and go to his son's defense.

Artemis faced her father with her bow in hand, an arrow knocked to the bowstring. "This has to stop, Father."

"Stop?" The lightning in Zeus' hands crackled with menace. "I'm only just getting started."

"You've done enough," she told him, drawing back the arrow.

"I am your father, and you will obey me!" Zeus thundered. He let the gathered lightning fly toward Shane.

Swiftly, Artemis lowered her bow, the arrow gripped lightly between her thumb and two fingers as she gestured with her hand, stopping her father's lightning bolts with her telekinesis. They hung between them, crackling in the air. "You were once my father! Now... You're someone else."

Sam, Dean, and Emma charged at Zeus as he fought his daughter for control. Unwilling to release the lightning, Zeus left himself wide open to the attack. Dean stabbed his stake into Zeus' heart and the brilliant, blue-white light and sizzling crackle of the lightning abruptly died as the king of the gods dropped to the floor.

There was a tense moment as Artemis stared down at her father, her expression stricken.

"Mom!" Oliver broke the silence, running to throw his arms around Hayley.

Artemis took Zeus' hand, then turned and shared a long look with Shane. Then the goddess disappeared, taking Zeus' corpse with her.

Author's note: In several places in this chapter and the last I've lifted dialog directly from the episode 'Remember the Titans'. All credit goes to the writers of Supernatural, in this case specifically, I believe, to Dan Loflin.

Please join me for the next chapter, when we'll continue our Season 8 tangent with episode 18, 'Freaks and Geeks'. In this AU, most of the other events of Season 8 (meeting Henry, finding the Men of Letters bunker, Sam's trials, etc.) take place after Emma's story arc ends. Yes, I said ends. Don't worry, I plan to give her a great sendoff!

And finally, to the most wonderful of readers, those of you who take the time to review, you rock! Many thanks to StarTrail, RHatch89, Nyx Ro, Loves to read books, wack sparrow, EmilyAnneMcGarrett-Winchester, CatastrophicCarnival, and missbosslady27.