Damaged Goods

Salvation

John pinned up the last of his things to the wall around us. The entire culmination of his twenty year hunt. A lot of the papers were newer than the rest.

"So this is it. This is everything I know." John explained. "Look, our whole lives we've been searching for this demon right? Not a trace, just...nothing. Until about a year ago. For the first time I picked up a trail."

"And that's when you took off." Dean reasoned.

"Yeah. That's right. The demon must have come out of hiding, or hibernation." John suspected/

"All right so what's this trail you found?" Dean asked.

"It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey, California. Houses burned down to the ground." John reported. He eyed us. "It's going after families, just like it went after us."

"Families with infants?" Sam guessed.

"Yeah. The night of the kid's six-month birthday." John clarified.

"We were six months old that night?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Exactly six months." John confirmed.

'Wow- it's almost like Azazel planned it like that.'

"Anything connecting the families before that?" I asked. "Cause we've seen another family- there was only one son. So it can't be that they have multiple children."

"No connection that I could see." John answered.

"What was their social class?" I prompted.

"Mostly working class." John answered. "A few times there were more middle and upper class, but mostly the lower classes."

'Okay...okay...families that would be more likely to be watching their children, rather than have them under the care of nannies or the like. Parents that would check if they heard a noise in the nursery. It says nothing about the parents that don't check, the 6-month olds that have psychic powers but no dead parents.'

So that lead's a bust.

"So basically, this demon is going after these kids for some reason." Sam snarked. "The same way it came for us? Came for me? So Mom's death...Jessica. It's all because of me?"

'...I wanna say he's wrong.

Only all of this was to create an army for the Apocalypse.

That Sam is supposed to lead.

As Lucifer's vessel.

And Azazel only killed Jessica to get Sam started hunting again.

So...it is his fault...but I can't just say that.

That would be cruel.'

"We don't know that for sure." I ended up saying.

"Oh really? Cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure Raven." Sam snapped.

"For the last time, what happened to them was not your fault." Dean argued.

"Right. It's not my fault but it's my problem." Sam shouted.

"No it's not your problem, it's our problem!" Dean shouted back.

"Okay. That's enough. Everyone takes a breath and calms down." John scolded.

The boys stopped their fight.

"We still don't know why he's doing all of this. The pattern says it's not random. In all the cases you have here, none of them have the infants dying. The mother dies, yes, or the father, but never the baby. It's all about the kids. What does he want from them?" I asked, despite knowing well and good what Azazel wanted.