33. Chapter 33

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.

Author's note: Nanowrimo and GISHWHES. What was I thinking? Fun though.

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 33

"Wadda yah want?"

Victor stood on a decrepit porch attached to a decrepit house and stared into a very up to date camera and speaker.

"Uh, my name's Victor Henricksen."

"So?"

"Bobby Singer suggested that I look you up."

There wasn't any sound over the camera, but Victor was certain that he heard a thump from the house that sounded like someone hitting something.

"So?"

"He said to bring Scotch. I've never gotten the chance to open this, as I don't drink alone. Thought you might be able to help me with that last part." He held up the bottle of Glencraig.

The door to the house opened and Victor got his first look at Rufus Turner.

"How long have you been sitting on that bottle?"

Victor gave it a look. "Close to two years."

Rufus stared at him and shook his head. "I don't usually bother to drink if it isn't Johnny Walker Blue." Then he smiled. "But, I suppose I could make an exception just this once. Come on in kid."

Victor raised an eyebrow, but figured that if Rufus had been a hunter as long as Bobby, then he'd probably earned the right to call anyone just starting out in the business a kid.

It was better than probie, after all.

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The eyewitness reports that the platoon brought back threw up an immediate roadblock to the operation. Both the main headquarters and the labs had heavy-duty Enochian wards for protection. The distribution centre and factories had some as well, but they were more of the 'don't notice us variety,' rather than the 'can't come in' type of ward and wouldn't hold against a concentrated effort to enter.

And concentrated effort was something angels did well.

Castiel went to discuss the larger problem with Dean and Sam, because they were going to have to involve more people. Hunters most likely. Preferably ones that the brothers knew and trusted. Of course, once they had the extra support, they would have to figure out a way for the hunters to break the wards so the angels could follow.

Dean threw his hands up in the air. "You make it sound so easy."

"I am certain that I can come up with a way for a human to disable the wards. " Cas said, trying to reassure him.

When it came to such things, he had special knowledge given to him by his Father. However, the other reason that Cas' wards were so strong was because those types of protections had always been his specialty. In addition, he also possessed an almost instinctively knowledge of how to counter nearly any ward.

"Sure, but we'll still need to get to them." It was on the tip of Dean's tongue to say that they would just deal with the problem without the angels' help, when Sam interrupted.

"Well, Bobby said he'd help and he's going to give a shout out to any other hunters he can think of that can handle something this big." He said as he ended the call he'd made during Dean and Cas' conversation.

Dean shook his head. "That's going to be a short list."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, but it'll be more than what we've got now."

Dean couldn't argue with that.

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Cas viewed the sigils he could see at a safe distance from Niveus headquarters. Two angels, essentially the platoon's lieutenants, were standing nearby.

"Are all the wards like these?"

One of the angels nodded. "As far as we can tell, yes. The ones at the lab are similar."

Cas frowned. "They are extensive… but they are temporary. They could easily have sunk them into the building's foundations. So why didn't they?"

"Perhaps they thought they might need to release them quickly."

Cas nodded. "Yes, but why…" His eyes widened, as he suddenly understood.

"Lucifer."

The younger angels started and looked around. "Where?"

Castiel raised an eyebrow at them, but didn't say anything. "They want to keep angels out, but they have hope that someday Lucifer will be free. If that happens, he may have need to visit these sites. And he is still an archangel."

Both of the younger angels nodded. "The wards would have to be temporary…" The older of the two said.

"Yes," Cas answered. "Temporary and easily broken. Probably from somewhere inside the buildings."

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Rufus was just finishing off his second glass of scotch and enjoying the finishing tastes of mint and chocolate when one of his phones rang.

"Turner."

Victor paused with his glass half way up to his lips at Rufus' annoyed expression.

"Yes I'm busy. I'm sitting here with another kid you sent me, drinking his scotch."

He listened for a bit. "You've got to be shitting me."

He listened a little longer. "So? What do you mean 'so'? You're planning to take on a building full of demons with only a handful of hunters and you expect me to help?"

Victor tilted his head, certain that he'd heard a little tinny voice on the other side of the phone line Turner was on yell out 'yes!'

Rufus slammed the phone down and glared at it.

"Uh…" Henricksen started, trying to think of what to ask that would actually get answered, when the phone rang again.

Growling, Rufus answered it.

"Fine, I'll be there as soon as I can." He looked up at Victor. "Should I bring the kid?"

Henricksen downed the last of his drink, suspecting he'd need the boost for whatever was coming.

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Ellen managed to answer her phone one ring before it would have gone to voice mail.

"Harvelle."

Jo paused in the middle of packing and turned towards her mother, who had gone uncharacteristically quiet.

"Okay Bobby, we'll be there as soon as we can." She ended the call and then looked at her daughter.

"Finish packing it up, we've got another job to get to."

The last few items went into their bags a little more haphazardly than normal. "We heading to Sioux Falls?"

Ellen nodded. "We'll meet up with Bobby and the Winchesters there, but the jobs in California." She tilted her head towards the motel room's door. "Come on, we've got a full days drive ahead of us."

Nodding, Jo started to take their duffels out to the car. "Think we should call in Roy and Walt? They're probably still in the area."

Ellen snorted. "Not a chance. This one's big. Those two, they'd just get us killed.

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Twenty-four hours of driving later, Ellen and Jo had beat Rufus to Bobby's place by a few hours.

They each downed a shot glass of Holy water. Ellen held out her glass once it was empty.

"I'll take some of that rotgut you're actually dumb enough to believe is whiskey.

Bobby snorted, grabbed a bottle off his desk and came back to pour her and himself a drink.

Jo very wisely stepped aside to talk with the boys.

"Hey."

Dean nodded at her. "Hey." He glanced over at Bobby and Ellen and raised an eyebrow at how comfortable the two of them seemed together. He gave his head a shake. They had known each other for a long time, had probably even hunted together a time or two. Of course they would be comfortable together.

"So, are you going to let me know what we're up against?"

Dean brought his attention back to Jo and gave her a half-hearted smile.

"Just as soon as Rufus and Henricksen get here."

Jo blinked. "Isn't he a little new to be involved in something like this?"

"Yeah, but he's a good man and he's dealt with demons before." Dean smirked slightly. "A lot of demons."

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Even though he'd done his research on Bobby Singer and knew what the man's day job was, this was the first time that Victor had actually seen the Salvage yard. The oddest thing about the place was that Bobby's house was so very much a house that at one time could have been a home. Something that with a little care would have been the farm version of a house with a white picket fence.

Instead, he had crushed cars and a gravel lot.

"So, you've known Bobby a long time, right?"

Rufus snorted. "Yeah, you could say that. Haven't actually seen the man in about fifteen years or so. Usually to only talk to him maybe once or twice a year." He shook his head. "Never thought I'd see the day I was back here."

While Victor was certain there was a hell of a story there, he was also certain that Rufus would decline to tell it.

Rufus parked his truck near the Impala and both men got out. Henricksen had dropped the rental he'd been driving off at the car company in Rochester, NY, as they cut across the top of the state on their way to South Dakota.

Victor was digging his duffle bags out of the back of the truck when he heard the house door open.

Singer stepped out on the porch. The two older men stared at each other for a moment and Victor almost jumped when Turner finally spoke.

"Bobby." He gave the man a nod.

The other hunter nodded back. "Rufus." He only then did he seem to notice Victor standing nearby. "Henricksen, good to see you again. Sam and Dean would like a word with you before the festivities begin."

Victor nodded, but didn't move. Neither did Rufus.

Bobby made a sighing noise that sounded as if he were being strangled. "Well? Get your asses in here." He turned and stomped back into the house.

Rufus snorted. "It's almost nice to see that some things never change."

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"Rufus."

"Dean, Sam." The older hunter shook their hands. "We starting in right away or is there someplace I can crash for a few hours?"

"Grab the room Sam and I are using. Upstairs, second on the right."

Rufus nodded and started up the stairs.

"Oh, Rufus. Ellen and Jo are in the room across the hall, so… don't get the wrong room."

"Gotcha."

Victor watched Rufus climb the stairs for a moment, before turning towards the two brothers. Both of them gave him worried smiles that immediately set him on guard.

"What?"

"How are you for sleep?"

"Napped in the car, so I'm good. Why?"

"'Cause what's going on would be enough to give a narcoleptic insomnia. So if you need sleep, you should get some first."

He shook his head. "I'm good."

"Okay then…" The brother's looked at each other. "Let's go outside."

Victor would have thought that they'd planned the talking together at the same time thing that happened with that last line, if it hadn't been for the mild look of surprise and annoyance they both had at doing it.

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"So, what's the job?" Henricksen asked once they'd dragged him off into one of the workshops.

"We need to infiltrate two, very, very large buildings full of demons. Once in, we need to find whatever they're using to power the wards in the place and destroy them, so our backup can take the buildings."

Victor shivered, as if someone had just dumped a bucket of cold water down his back.

"What's strong enough to take out a few buildings worth of demons, but can be warded against?"

Dean took a deep breath. "Angels."

Victor's mouth dropped open for a moment. He closed it with a click of his teeth. "You've got to be shitting me."

Dean shook his head. "Wish I was, but nope."

"But…" Victor frowned. "So, why tell me about this now? Why not wait and tell me along with everyone else?"

The brother's communicated something to each other with a look before Sam took up the story.

"Well, other than us and Bobby, you're the only one who's met Cas."

Victor shook his head, not understanding.

"See, it turns out that Cas' real name isn't Kaseva, it's Castiel."

"Uh?"

Dean made an exasperated noise. "He's an angel… As in Angel of the Lord. He took up some special mission from God involving us and went undercover. None of the other angels know about him having been Kaseva, and he needs to keep it that way."

Dean finished the information dump, his breathing a bit quicker than usual.

Victor found a crappy old kitchen chair over by one of the workbenches and sat down on it. He stared at the ground and tried to wrap his mind around what he'd just heard.

"You okay Victor?"

Henricksen glanced up at Sam to see the younger man looking down at him, a concerned look on his face.

"Ah, you two haven't perhaps gone crazy, have you?"

Sam shook his head. "Sorry, no such luck." The concerned look was still on his face.

Victor blinked as he realized he believed him. "Wow."

"Yeah, so, you okay?"

Victor intended to nod, but his head felt too heavy and it just dropped. "Yeah, just give me a moment to process." Actually, he suspected that he needed a year or two to do just that, but he didn't have that long, so a moment would have to do.

Dean ran a hand through his hair. "Look, we'll explain everything about the plan once everyone's recovered from getting here. We just need to know that you won't mention Cas' cover ID to the other angels."

Victor looked up at him. "Other angels." He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. "Other angels."

"Henricksen? You sure you're okay?"

Victor groaned, but raised his eyes so he could see them. "Yeah." He ran his hand over his scalp, remembering that he'd started shaving it years ago because he'd been afraid he'd pull it out by the roots over the stuff he saw on the job. Now, he figured it was doubly good that he was bald because his hair had probably turned grey sometime during the last few minutes.

"Henricksen? "

He raised a hand to stop Dean from saying anything more. "Don't worry; keeping Cas' cover is the easy part of this." He'd never gone undercover himself, but he'd worked with plenty of agents who had. "I know how to keep my mouth shut about things like that. It's just the angel and God parts I'm having trouble with."

Dean snorted. "Don't worry, you'll get over it. Might need to get drunk first, but you will."

Victor rubbed a hand over his face and then stood up. "I'll have to give that a try…once we've dealt with the demons." He shook his head. "And I thought they'd been the biggest thing to ever change my world view."

"Yeah." Dean grinned suddenly. "You realize that you've had more dumped on you in the first few months than most hunters would expect to run into in a life time?"

"That's not reassuring."

Dean lost his smile and sighed. "Wasn't really meant to be."

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Bobby's living room was crowded with seven hunters and three angels. Castiel had arrived with a male and a female angel and introduced them to the brothers as Ozael and Orael. It was a sure bet that only Castiel would be able to remember which was which. Like their names, the angels were similar in looks. Blond and suntanned. They were saved from giving off total Ken and Barbie vibes by possessing a muscle tone that only tri athletes usually had and a military like precision that they did everything with, even if it was just standing at attention next to Castiel.

"Everyone, find a seat." Bobby said, taking his usual one behind his desk. Others took up space on the couch, used the chairs from the kitchen or sat on the floor. The three angels simply remained standing.

Bobby nodded at Dean and Sam to start.

"Okay." Dean looked around at everyone, suddenly uncomfortable. "A few years ago, Sam and I ran into what apparently was a test run case for something called the Croatoan virus. It was used to infect some people, and they went on and affected others, and so forth, until just about an entire town had it."

Sam cleared his throat and joined in. "What Dean hasn't mentioned, is that anyone who comes down with the virus, essentially becomes a sort of zombie demon thing, only without being possessed."

"Joy." Was Ellen's dry assessment.

Bobby gave her a snort. "It gets better."

"How?"

Dean grimaced. "We…well; we came across some information about a pharmaceutical company, called Niveus. Apparently, most of the people working for them are demons and they've been working on making that virus even more efficient."

They paused while the rest of the hunters tossed off a few heartfelt swear words.

"Yeah. Anyway, we want to take the company down. More importantly, we want to destroy everything we can find about that virus. "

Rufus shook his head. "I've heard of this company, it's huge. We'd never be able to cover that much ground fast enough with only the… ten of us."

"That's were those three come in." Bobby said, waving a hand towards Cas and his two lieutenants.

Rufus frowned. "Just who the hell are they, anyway?"

Cas stepped forward. "My name is Castiel. This is Ozael and Orael. We are Angels of the Lord."

Dead silence.

Cas sighed and lightening lit up the room, even though it was still daylight out. In the flash, the shadow of huge wings painted the walls behind the three angels.

"Holy crap." Jo said, wide eyed from where she sat on the floor.

Ellen blew out a breath she'd been holding on to for too long. "Okay…maybe, but even three of you can't be everywhere at once… Can you?"

"No. However, there are another eighteen angels that will join in this operation."

"So, why do you need us?"

Cas tilted his head and looked at her. "You are our only way in."

Confused, Ellen looked at the Winchesters.

"The demons have the place covered in anti-angel wards. They need us to go in and break them before they can enter." Dean told her with a shrug.

"Oh, is that all."