34. Chapter 34

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 34

"So, you expect us to run around and do what? Scrape a line through every ward in the place?" Ellen asked the angel, a disbelieving look on her face.

"No, that would take too long. Besides, many of the wards are invisible to the human eye."

Ellen threw her hands up in frustration. "Then how exactly are we supposed to help?"

Ozael, the male blond angel, looked to Castiel and once he had received a short nod, stepped forward to speak.

"We believe that it may be possible to take down the wards in each building with one blow."

Ellen narrowed her eyes at him. "Explain."

Castiel frowned slightly. He'd always know that Ellen Harvelle was a force to be reckoned with, but even he was surprised when Ozael stiffened to attention before continuing his report.

"Instead of tying their defences into the foundations or taking the time to renew them daily, the demons appear to be using a crystal to power them."

Bobby frowned. "Must be one hell of a crystal."

"Yes". The female angel, Orael said." We managed to… Hack their computers?" At everyone's nod she continued. "About a year and a half ago, Niveus bought two 500 lb pieces of quartz crystal, listed them as art and placed them in the foyer of the twelfth floor of the corporate headquarters and in a center atrium at the labs."

Ozeal took up the narrative. "We believe that one or more of the demons on the premises of both buildings recharges the crystal every month or so to keep the wards powered. We also believe that something was set up with each piece that would make it simple to cut the power and break the wards."

Everyone except the angels looked confused.

Castiel smiled slightly at the expressions on their faces, since confused was often how he felt when dealing with humans. "If their father is ever free to walk the Earth, then they would not want wards blocking his path."

Now everyone except Bobby and the Winchesters frowned. Henricksen ended up being the first to ask.

"Their father?"

"Lucifer. Even though he was cast down from Heaven, he is still an Archangel. The wards would work to keep him out and they would not want to do that." Castiel paused for a beat. "Nor would it be safe for them to do so."

"Knew I shouldn't have asked." The FBI agent said with a slightly dazed look in his eyes.

Every human in the place nodded in agreement.

xxxxxxxx

Sam and Dean were already locked into hitting the headquarters. Lots were drawn to see who would go with them, who would attempt to take out the wards at the labs and who would be stationed on the outside for logistic support and backup.

Henricksen ended up pulling the assignment at the headquarters with Sam and Dean. Jo, Rufus and Bobby ended up on lab duty, and Ellen pulled the slip to play mastermind

"How about a best two out of three on the draws?" Ellen asked.

"No." Jo said quietly, but firmly. She knew her mother wanted to either be on the same team as her or wanted to have her moved to the safer, behind the scenes job.

Ellen glowered at her daughter. "Fine."

xxxxxxxx

Instead of driving all the way to California from Bobby's place and ending up there exhausted, the group collected their gear and flew angel airways. Once they were there, Castiel fronted the cash for the equipment, cars and miscellaneous items they would need for the operation. For once, Dean wasn't in the mood to be curious enough about where Cas got his money.

After some discussion, they opted for a night-time infiltration, as it was likely there would be less human staff around at that time.

The teams split up and headed towards their separate goals.

xxxxxxxx

Dean lowered his binoculars.

"Demons."

Cas frowned slightly at the security guards at the entrance to Niveus' international corporate headquarters. "No, they are human. We are more likely to find the demons at the executive level."

"Damn. Looks like we'll have to try to find a way in from the back."

Cas gave Dean a look.

"What?"

Cas' look deepened and Dean slumped and sighed. "Damn it."

"We are not killing humans just because they're in the way." Henricksen said with a growl from the back seat.

"Relax, that's not what they were talking about." Sam said. He'd seen Dean and Cas do the eye thing enough that he could on occasion translate it.

Of course, there were some occasions when he suspected it would be better not to even try.

"We need to knock them out, tie them up and…" Dean gave Hendricksen a look and a wicked little smirk. "Borrow one of their uniforms."

The FBI agent rolled his eyes. "Great."

xxxxxxxx

Victor tugged the slightly too short sleeves of the security guard's blazer down a bit and tried to look imposing and efficient. Normally, that wouldn't have been a problem. However, he found it rather nerve wracking to listen to Sam and Dean off in a side office as they noisily tied the two guards down to the furniture and gagging them with whatever was available.

"It's your own fault dude. Socks should be changed daily."

Henricksen grimaced at the thought of dirty sock mouth and ignored them in favour of looking over the security desk. Two work areas, lamps, phones, computers, picture of a pretty woman, log books, procedural manuals…

No security screens, no emergency button, no key cards for above the eleventh floor…

"Will you be okay here?" Victor looked up to see Sam standing by the desk. Dean was over at the doors to the side office, closing them. The younger Winchester handed Henricksen one of the guards radios, the other already clipped onto his belt.

"Yeah." He said, answering Sam's question. He looked over the desks one more time. "From the set up here, I'd say there's a separate security force that starts at the twelfth floor."

Sam nodded. "Makes sense. They wouldn't want humans where the action is."

Dean joined his brother. "Be ready to book it out of here at a moments notice."

Victor tilted his head in agreement. "Not a problem."

xxxxxxxx

Ellen hacked into the lab's security cameras so she could watch the rest of the team as they approached the building. A police scanner broadcast random reports behind her, none of them concerning either her group or the Winchester's group.

At least, not yet.

They were running a basic damsel in distress, with Jo naturally as the damsel. Bobby and Rufus were hiding in the bushes, prepared to step in if things got dicey. Rufus with a salt loaded shotgun and Bobby with the Colt. The Winchesters had insisted he take it with him.

Wearing a teeny tiny little black dress and carrying a small clutch bag, Jo banged open handed on the glass door to Niveus Pharmaceutical's Research and Development labs.

One of the security guards opened the door while the other one stayed at the desk.

"Oh, thank goodness." Jo hugged herself. It wasn't cold out, but she managed to convey the impression that she had to be freezing in that dress. "My car broke down, I need some help."

The guard looked around. Not seeing anyone else, he tilted his head towards the desk. "Come on, you can use the phone."

"Thank you."

Jo's high heels clipped frantically fast across the tiled floor as she followed the guard to the desk. The second one gave her a small smile and went back to what he was working on.

"Here." The guard that had let her in reached over pulled one of the phones up onto the desks counter.

"Thanks, I just have to phone my auto club."

The guard nodded and backed up, but only slightly.

Jo picked up the handset and without telegraphing the move at all, lashed out with it, hitting the guard in the temple. He dropped and she pulled a tazer out of her clutch bag, shooting the second guard before he could move to intervene. The connections hit him in the chest and he fell. Jo could still hear him vibrating as she ran back to the door to let Bobby and Rufus in.

The hunters tested both men with a little Holy water, which was slightly redundant since they'd still be conscious if they'd been demons. They did it anyway, since Bobby and Rufus could both define themselves under the title of paranoid bastards. When the guards proved to be human, the two older men tied them to the desk's chairs and wheeled them into a nearby supply closet.

"Damn." Rufus grunted as he worked to fit the second guard into the small space. "I know the blonde angel… Oreo or whatever her name was, I know she said the guards were human, but I figured at least one of them had to be a demon." He unclipped their key chains and looked over the key cards attached to them. "Ah, they only have access to the front offices."

"So, the demons are further in." Jo said from behind them.

Rufus closed the closet door and nodded. "Yep." He looked Jo over. "Don't think we can get past them the same way we got in here." He stepped out of the building for a moment and retrieved the bags of weapons he'd hidden in the bushes.

From one of the bags, Jo collected a shotgun and her iron knife and a pair of running shoes, which she quickly changed into. Bobby still had the Colt, but he pulled out a shotgun from the second bag. Rufus just stayed with what he had and slung the third bag over one shoulder. The others did the same with their bags and started to move further into the building.

Out in the surveillance van, Ellen let out a sigh of relief, before tensing up again. It was still a long way to that central atrium and the crystal.

xxxxxxxx

Sam and Dean eased their way out of the elevator and into the open area of the foyer. Dean used the shotgun he was carrying as a pointer.

"Look."

Sam blinked at what sat in the middle of the space on a glass-covered pedestal.

Five hundred pounds of crystal was a lot of crystal. It was a clear, facetted cluster with spears pointed out in different directions. Sam wasn't sure if the crystal had been cut and polished or if that was just the way it was, but it was beautiful.

It was also vibrating.

Dean reached a hand out towards the glass. "Wow, I think my hair wants to stand on end." It wasn't static electricity, yet it felt like it should have been.

"Yeah."

The both stared at it a moment longer, before giving themselves a shake.

"Okay, let's figure out how to get into this thing."

The glass wouldn't move, and given the size of it, Dean wasn't sure the two of them could have lifted it off anyway. The only thing a quick search of the pedestal turned up was what looked like a fingerprint reader.

"So, we go cut off someone's hand, open it and do what ever we have to, to make it stop humming." Dean grit his teeth, because the vibration was becoming very annoying.

"Yeah." Sam said, not really paying attention. Instead, his attention was all on the print reader.

"Sam? Hey!" Before Dean could stop him, the younger Winchester placed his thumb down on the reader.

"Ow." Pulling away, Sam looked at the slightly oozing puncture mark in the pad of his thumb.

The reader came to life and words stated to flash across a small, attached screen.

'Sample taken… analyzed… human compounds… demon compounds…. Identity confirmed… Sam Winchester… vessel of Lucifer… need of access confirmed… system overload in 3...

Dean grabbed Sam and pulled him back.

2...

Turning they dove behind a couple of decretive pillars.

1...

The brothers slapped their hands over their ears. If they thought the humming had been annoying earlier, it was ear piercing, eye watering, teeth rattling obnoxious now.

All over the building glyphs flared into life, growing brighter and brighter as power pumped through them, until a limit was reached and passed. With a snap and a fizzle, every ward in the place cracked, darkened… and died.

Dean poked his head around one edge of the pillar, Sam the other.

"What the hell man?"

Sam shrugged. "It just came to me. Demons don't think much of humans, they wouldn't believe we'd ever find out about this place, much less manage to break in. So if I was here, it would have to be because I was Lucifer and they probably made sure that he could access all systems, regardless of what they were for."

Dean frowned. "You realize this means they got hold of your blood at some point."

Sam grimaced. "Yeah, well, we've certainly spilled enough of it over the years. Besides, I think my grade eight school nurse may have been a demon."

"Wait. That was the hot one."

"Yep."

"Damn."

xxxxxxxx

Victor peered up over the edge of the desk he'd ducked behind after a series of symbols flared to life over the building's walls. They were still there, only now they were blackened and flaking.

The Winchesters checked in with him through the stolen radios and warned him to be ready. He got a few minutes of peace, before he found himself back under the desk, his hands clasped over his ears. The angels had arrived, and not all of them had vessels.

xxxxxxxx

Cas made it to Sam and Dean before his brothers and sisters started the attack.

"If you want Brady, then we have to find him now."

They nodded and started to search.

Thankfully, the offices all had nameplates. Brady didn't rate a corner office yet and they found his workspace jammed into the middle of a run of smaller offices.

They burst through the door, shotguns at the ready, only to pull up, shocked.

"Wondered when you were going to get here."

Crowley smirked at them from his position standing behind a demon they hoped was Brady. It was a little hard to tell, because said demon's head was covered with a bloodied canvas bag with a devil's trap painted on the face of it.

Dean levelled his shotgun at the two of them. "Crowley? What are you doing here?"

The demon shrugged. "I provide gift wrapping." He gave the bagged demon a poke. "I've also sealed him into this body, so he isn't going anywhere. Just make sure he doesn't survive. I don't need him tattling on me."

The very air started to vibrate as the other angels started to arrive.

"That appears to be my cue. See you later." He gave the demon another poke and wiggled his eyebrows at Castiel and the Winchesters. "Have fun." Crowley was gone the next moment.

Dean turned towards Cas. "Are you sure we need him?"

Castiel sighed. "Unfortunately, yes." Dismissing Crowley's involvement for the moment, he pointed at Brady. "Grab him, and I'll get you back to Bobby's place." They already had a devil's trap set up in one of the salvage yard's larger workshops.

The brothers did as instructed.

"Don't forget Henricksen." Sam reminded the angel.

Cas nodded and with a touch, they were in the lobby, behind the desk where the FBI agent was huddled. Suspecting that the man wouldn't be able to hear him with his hands over his ears, Castiel grabbed onto him and before he could react, they were somewhere else.

xxxxxxxx

Bobby watched a demon light up and die, while Jo and Rufus winced at the noise and kept an eye out. That was the problem with the Colt; it was effective, but loud. Thankfully, other than a couple of the labs on the far side of the complex that seemed to be working around the clock, the rest of the building was near empty.

Two demons leapt out of the double doors in front of them, as if trying to prove Bobby's last thought wrong.

"Balls." Bobby shot the one closest to him. Something like lightning seemed to crawl under the demon's skin as it died.

The other one stared at the body for a moment, before he turned tail to run back though the door he'd just come through.

Smoothly, Jo flung her knife and buried it into the demon's back before he managed to disappear into the dark room beyond the doors. His legs tangle in each other and he went down.

"Damn." Jo said, frowning as the demon continued to try to crawl away. "Why doesn't he just smoke out of there?"

"Huh." Bobby and Rufus spared each other a glance as they realized they'd said that together. Rufus indicated with a wave of his hand that Bobby should take the lead.

"Doesn't happen very often, but sometimes with iron, the demon'll get pinned into the body until the blade is removed."

The two men moved towards the crawling demon. Each of them took an arm and hauled him to his feet.

"Wouldn't happen to know where the giant crystal is at, would you?" Bobby asked, still taking lead.

The guy looked at him as if he was nuts and pointed off into the darkness.

Behind them, Jo found the light switch and snapped it on.

The sudden light was bad enough, but the giant, glass covered crystal at the rooms centre nearly blinded them.

The demon wrenched his arms out of their hold and promptly fell flat on his face. Rolling their eyes, the two of them picked him back up and dragged him over to the crystal, dropping him in a heap beside the pedestal.

Bobby kept an eye on him while Jo and Rufus looked the crystal and case over.

"Looks like a thumbprint reader over here." Rufus said, poking his head around glass case. Bobby looked down at the demon and raised an eyebrow.

The bastard apparently had gotten his second wind, because he struggled as they dragged him around the pedestal. He only stilled when Bobby held the Colt to his head and Rufus slammed the demon's thumb into the print reader.

"Ah." The demon yanked his hand free and Bobby frowned when he noticed that the guy's thumb was now bleeding.

A small screen, attached to the reader, powered up.

Sample taken… analysing… demon confirmed… minimal access… require sample from second source to verify… sample required in 30... 29... 28.

"Ah, crap." The three hunters looked around the room, as if expecting a second demon to just pop up and be useful.

21... 20... 19 … 18.

"What about the dead demon by the door?" Jo asked, slightly frantic.

The men shook their heads. "Empty meat suit, it'll probably read as human.

12... 11... 10.

"Balls." Bobby pulled back the hammer on the Colt… and shot the print reader.

Forked tongues of power travelled out of the damaged piece of hardware in a wave and moved up the sides of the case. The hunters ducked as the glass shattered. The electrical charge… or whatever it really was, crawled across the pedestal and started to climb the crystal.

Bobby, Rufus and Jo backed away, quickly.

Unnoticed, the print reader's cracked screen sputtered back to life.

Overload in process… 3... 2... 1...

The three of them dropped to the floor as the crystal cracked. As it did, every sigil in the building flared to bright life and the stench of something unpleasant being burned was everywhere. The crystal cracked again and a shower of crystal shards showered across the floor. Every mark darkened, leaving the walls covered in pealing scorch marks.

xxxxxxxx

Ellen flipped open her phone at the first ring.

"We need retrieval, now."

She nodded at the blonde female angel who had been standing by. With a blink, she was gone and before Ellen could finish taking her next breath, she was back with Jo, Bobby and Rufus. The three of them looked a little worse for the wear, but they were still in one piece.

Orael disappeared while Ellen was hugging her daughter.

"Ack… Mom."

"Live with it."

Behind them, the police band radio lit up with information about the 911 calls from Niveus' assorted human employees, security guards included, who suddenly found themselves in a park miles from both buildings.

Ellen's phone rang again, which was the only reason she stopped hugging her daughter.

"Go ahead." She listened for a moment. "Great, the wards are down here as well and it sounds like the angels already got everyone human out, so any time your friend wants to pick us…"

Everyone felt a slight lurch, and then Castiel opened the van's back doors.

"It is done."

Slightly disbelieving they looked out onto Bobby's salvage yard.

"Beats flying." Jo said.

Cas frowned at her.

"Uh, by plane, that is."

"Ah." He nodded and walked off towards the workshop, to rejoin Dean and Sam.