24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Erik Kripke, Warner Brothers and quite possibly others who are not mentioned here. No money will be made from this fan fiction.

Summary: When Dean goes to sell his soul at the crossroads to bring Sam back, someone else steps in to negotiate the deal. Cas did get a sign and it sent him off into the past to change things. AU from The Man Who Would be King and All Hell Breaks Loose.

It's All in the Details

By Colleen

Chapter 24

Crowley looked out at the vast, seething landscape of Hell and marvelled at the quiet. Oh, there was still noise. Even this far from the Pit the sounds of screaming, begging, laughing and the ever-present clank of chain as the damned writhed on the racks couldn't be escaped. However, those were sounds that the denizens of this reality were use to. What was missing was all the noise the angels had added as they attempted to lay siege to Hell for the past thirty years.

Crowley shook his head over what had to have been the strangest military action in any reality. Without Lilith alive to drive the demons into the fight, the majority of Hell's inhabitants had simply run away. Add to that the frequency with which the angelic Host set off booby traps and the whole thing came closer to resembling a Monty Python sketch than a military campaign.

He suspected that the entire mess was just further proof that God had a sense of humour. However, you still didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

Bela came up beside him. "I take it that they found him."

"Oh, they found him. In fact, they kept fighting even after they got him topside." He shook his head. "Kept us running around, looking in all the wrong places." He frowned and turned to her. "They didn't strike me as being that sneaky."

She shrugged. "The guys at the top were probably responsible for that."

"True." He noticed that she had his schedule in her hands. "Is there something I'm supposed to be at?"

She nodded. "Yes. You have an appointment Earth side, with a demon named Meg."

Crowley winced. "Azazel's daughter."

Bela looked equally pained. "Apparently she's leading Lilith's people now."

"Damn. Did she say what she wanted?"

Bela shook her head.

"Joy." He sighed. "Prep the usual safety precautions. Oh, and get me a couple more teams for upstairs. I suspect I'll be there a while."

"You would be anyway."

"Granted, but normally I'd be expecting to enjoy it."

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"So, Castiel, you're quite the man of the hour." Zachariah said, looking the other angel over.

"Thank you, but I did nothing more than my duty." Cas' voice was as unemotional as he could make it. It was harder to do than expected. He'd been around humans…and Gabriel enough that it was now commonplace for him to do things like smile, sigh, laugh…and showing too much emotion would get him sent for re-education. Something he'd rather skip this time around.

"Yes, your duty. It's quite amazing, don't you think?" Zachariah asked. His eyes narrowed. "Here you are, the angel assigned to the job of raising the soul of the Righteous Man, and you were the only one who could find him."

"I was surprised as well.' Castiel hesitated for a moment, not certain that what he was about to suggest was a good idea. "It almost felt as if our Father had a hand in guiding me."

Zachariah paled slightly. "Well… That's…good."

Cas really wanted to roll his eyes. As Dean had mentioned before, Zachariah was a dick. He also wasn't very good at hiding just how pissed he was at Castiel for 'saving' Dean before the first seal had been broken. If the angel had had any doubts that his commanding officer had been involved in starting up the apocalypse from the beginning, he would now have been free of them. As much as it still disturbed Cas to wish ill of his brothers, he found a worrying amount of satisfaction in the fact that Dean had killed the Cherubim in the original time line.

"Well, he's your charge now. There are things he must be warned about, things he will need to be prepared for… should the worst occur. Although Lilith is gone, many of her followers are still working to free Lucifer. They will be doing their best to get Dean Winchester back into Hell. We've also heard rumours that the last seal is starting to reform."

Cas clamped down on the reflex to swear at the news. While he knew the first seal would continue to be a danger point, he hoped it would no longer matter as there was no way to break the last lock on Satan's cage.

He should have known it wouldn't be that easy. Things with the Winchesters never were.

"Is the new form of the last seal known yet?"

Zachariah shook his head. "Nope."

Cas fought the impulse to frown. His 'boss' had just lied. He couldn't prove it. In fact, he couldn't even explain how he knew it was a lie to himself. However, he was certain that Zachariah knew exactly what would be bound to the last seal.

He buried that thought. Deep. Before Zachariah could look him in the eye.

"Do you have any special orders for me at this time?"

"No. As I've said you must watch over him, teach him. Luckily, you getting there in time means we do not have to fight to keep the seals safe at the moment."

Cas wondered if Zachariah realized he'd said that last little bit through gritted teeth.

"Oh, and see if you can find out what's blocking him and his brother from our senses." Zachariah smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I would hate for them to be hurt just because we couldn't find them in time."

"I exist to serve." Cas said the line automatically, remembering when that statement had been nothing but simple fact. Bowing slightly to the other angel, he straightened and turned, glad to take his leave. Somehow being in his commanding officer's presence left him feeling…slimy.

It was disturbing to realize that if it came to a choice, he'd rather deal with Crowley, than follow any order of Zachariahs.

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"Dean, I wonder if you and Sam could do me a favour?"

Dean pulled himself out of the Impala's engine and looked up at Bobby.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Sam's found a hunt in Maine. If you take it, I was hoping you could stop in Vermont and drop this off for me." The older hunter held up a boxed bottle of Johnny Walker Blue.

"Whoa, how do I get on that Christmas list?"

Bobby snorted. "It's something I owe to another hunter. Rufus Turner. Pretty much knows everything about everything."

Dean blinked. "I thought that was you."

"I try, but he's still got me beat on occasion." Bobby opened the backdoor to the Impala and laid the bottle down on the seat. "If you're smart, you'll pick up another bottle of this stuff and offer to share it with Rufus. It'd be your best chance to pick his brain."

"Yeah, but for what?"

Bobby shrugged. "Choose something. Between angels, demons and the threat of a possible apocalypse, there'll be something you can talk about, and probably something that he'll know. 'Sides, you two should expand your contact base as far as other hunters go."

"Oh yeah, 'cause that worked so well when we were hanging out at the roadhouse."

"And that's why you need to do it. If those guys had known you better…"

"They'd have still done the same thing."

Bobby gave him a one-shoulder shrug. "Maybe, but maybe some of them wouldn't have. And those are the type you need to start making contact with."

Dean nodded, grudgingly admitting that Bobby was right. "Okay, I'll tell Sam what's going on and get cleaned up. You going to let the guy know we're coming?"

Bobby's smile was slightly evil. "Now, what would be the fun in that?"

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One thing that Cas found useful about being on the clock was that tuning into what Dean had called Angel Radio didn't have to be done carefully and sporadically. Of course, the sheer number of conversations going on at any time could be a bit much for even an angel to keep track of. However, they did at least tend to be pertinent and lacked the gossip that a human system would have had.

More or less.

Cas listened with half an ear. Right now, the talk centered on the righteous man being saved, his abomination of a brother, and the fact that there was a presence listening in on the angels that no one recognized.

Castiel snapped to attention, listening in on that particular conversation. At first, he thought that Gabriel or Balthazar might have tuned in, but once he'd gone searching for that presence, it was painfully obvious to him who it was.

Anna.

Cas winced as he felt his younger self briefly express her horror at the thought of the fallen angel, before the older personality took over fully again. Sighing, Castiel shook his head. He'd forgotten how naïve his younger self had been. He had little he could condemn Anna for, having followed similar and worse paths in his own life.

He had actually checked in on the fallen angel earlier, but she had been living her life as Anna Milton and he'd hoped that this time she might have the chance to finish out that life undiscovered.

Sometimes he didn't know why he wasted his energy hoping for things like that. Not when time itself was trying to push back at the changes.

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Anna sat, the sandwich in her hand ignored. Head tilted to one side, she listened to the conversations of angels, never realizing that she understood them perfectly when they weren't even speaking English.

"Anna." A hand came down on her shoulder and she jumped. Heart slamming in her chest she looked up at her father who was looking down at her in concern.

"I called your name three times. What has you so preoccupied?"

She blew out a huff of air. "Sorry Dad, I was just…thinking."

"Must be heavy thoughts." He sat down beside her and gave her a questioning look.

She shrugged and bit into her sandwich, effectively cutting off her ability to speak.

With a wry smile, Reverend Milton shook his head. "Are you sure you can still run those things over to the church for me? I can go later if you can't."

She shook her head, grabbing the glass of milk in front of her to wash down the sandwich.

"No, I'm happy to do it, Dad. Just let me finish up here and I'll be gone."

"You're sure?"

She nodded and took another bite of her sandwich, determined to stop listening to the whispering of other voices.

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Anna shuffled into the church's kitchen and heaved the bags up onto the counters. She quickly sorted the items. Cookies, sugar, stir sticks, tea bags, paper plates and napkins into the cupboards, coffee and cream into the fridge and frozen lemonade into the small but adequate freezer. There would be a potluck lunch after services on Sunday and the church itself always provided basic drinks.

She closed her eyes and leaned against the counter as the voices once more became too loud to ignore. Apparently, someone named Castiel had gone to watch over the righteous man and had disappeared from their senses. They weren't unduly concerned, just curious as to what was around Dean and Sam Winchester that kept them hidden. A few were asking questions as to why Castiel seemed to be the only one of them that could find his way through the shielding. The rest wanted to know how it was able to obscure even an angel's presence.

Most of them didn't have an answer, thought several of them thought that their Father was somehow involved.

The girl felt the false calm she'd enveloped herself in crack and splinter. She had angels in her head. Angels talking about God. Angels talking about a man rescued from Hell. Angels talking about a coming apocalypse.

Saying that Anna walked out of the kitchen would be a kind way of putting it. Staggered drunkenly was closer, but either way she made her way down the hall and into the sanctuary, dropping into one of the centre pews once she made it there. She stared blindly at nothing for a few moments, before rousing herself enough to try to pray.

"I wouldn't do that too loudly if I were you. The angels are already starting to search for you."

The girl jolted sideways in the pew, looking with frightened eyes at the man who stood in the aisle next to where she was sitting.

Whoever he was, he was wearing way too much black. Black pants, shirt, tie, suit coat. Heck, even the trench coat he wore over all of that was black.

Anna backed up a little more when she saw his face. If you asked her, she could have told you that they guy had black hair and blue eyes, but that was all. Shadow obscured the rest of his features. Shadow that shouldn't have existed in the well-lit room.

"You said the angels are looking for me?"

He nodded.

"So what does that make you?"

"A concerned bystander."

Shaking her head she stood and started to back up, trying to get to the aisle on the other side of the pew. The guy watched her, but didn't move. Once she'd made it to the end of the long bench, she turned, intending to run out of the sanctuary and down to her father's office, where she could lock the door and call for help.

Instead, she jerked back so hard she almost fell as she found herself nose to nose with the man in black. He grabbed onto her arms to stop her from falling, but he didn't let go once she was steady again.

"Please, don't." She didn't know what he was planning, however the fact that he knew about the angels, but apparently wasn't one himself meant… She swallowed her fear just long enough to ask the question.

"Are you a demon?"

What she could see of his features was grim. He seemed to be trying to decide something about her, and she got the breath stopping sensation that some of his options included her death. Yet, she had the horrible feeling that she should be more worried about what he was going to do with her if he let her live.

"No."

It took her a second to realize that he was answering her question.

"What?"

"No, I am not a demon." He let go of her and backed up enough that she could move from the narrow passage between the pews and out onto the open space of the aisle.

"The angels know you're listening in." He backed up another step, as if realizing that he was still to close to her for her comfort.

She frowned at him. It wasn't as if she wanted them in her head. She kept trying to block them out, but they were always there.

"You should avoid praying about this matter. They would be able to find you that way. "

She nodded. Angels finding out where she was and coming after her would be a very bad thing. How she knew this, she didn't know. However, it didn't stop it from being true.

"I do not believe the demons know of your existence yet. If you want to keep it that way, you will need to avoid 'freaking out'."

Anna blinked. There was just something wrong with a scary supernatural something using quote fingers.

"If you tell anyone what has happened to you, the demons will find out and they will come for you and your family."

Anna started to back up towards the doors, shaking her head. He sighed and disappeared. Her back came up against his body a second later.

"Anna."

She almost whimpered. Scary guy knew her name. Somehow, that was a bigger shock than knowing about the angels.

"Who are you?" She turned to look at him, moving few steps away from him as she did and still slightly freaked by the fact that she could never quite see his face.

"My name is Kaseva. Essentially, I am a pagan god."

"Right. A pagan god…in church."

He shrugged. "This place, strangely enough, seemed the best choice for speaking with you in private." He tossed her a small bundle, which she caught reflexively.

The voices, stopped. Startled, she almost dropped the thing.

"Keep that with you. It will help to hide you from angels and demons."

"Um." She looked at the little tied bag, not quite willing to trust it. "Why give me this? Why help me?"

"Hell is attempting to free Lucifer and start the apocalypse. The knowledge you could provide about the angels would help them with it. I and many others like me have no interest in letting the conflict come to pass."

"I wouldn't…"

Even without being able to see his face properly, she knew that the look he gave her was an annoyed one. "They would torture you for that information, unendingly. You would eventually break and tell them everything."

Anna felt her knees give out. The next instant she found herself sitting in one of the pews again, with Kaseva next to her.

Fighting tears, she turned the little bag over in her hands. "Why is this happening to me?"

The demigod sitting beside her seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"That I cannot say.

"Cannot or will not?"

She looked up at him when he didn't answer.

"You know…"

He tilted his head, the action somewhat bird like. "Yes, but as I said, I cannot say."

And with that, he was gone.

Anna shook her head. "Must be nice, never having to stay and risk losing an argument."

Slowly she curled up where she sat, letting her tears fall. One scared girl, somehow very alone in the House of the Lord.