39. Chapter 39

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: Third load attempt. Hopefully this one works.

Authour's note, February 17th, 2013: Minor changes to this chapter to fix an oops I made. Thanks SkyHighFan for letting me know.

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 39

Dean gave his brother a call on the way back to the motel. By the time he arrived, Sam had already hacked into the local school records and had Tracy's address, along with a report that she had recently been suspended for attacking a teacher.

While his brother took a look at the information on Tracy, Sam opened a book and laid out a picture of a Demon and a lot of dead bodies. "If she is one of our witches, then she and her partner have a lot of work to do in a very short time. The ritual to raise Samhain can only be performed every 600 years."

"And let me guess, the latest only time would be now."

Sam nodded. "It requires three blood sacrifices. Two of which were already stopped. That means they will have to plant two more hex bags before tomorrow…"

"Or get three people together in one place and do it then." Dean said.

"Mmm. You're sure that naughty nurse isn't one of the witches?"

"Ninety percent sure." Dean shrugged at Sam's look. "She blushed when I mentioned that Justin kid. I doubt a centuries old hag would have a crush on a teenage boy."

Sam's entire face wrinkled up. "Disturbing thought."

"Isn't it though."

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"I was only trying to rap with her about her work. It had gotten inappropriate and disturbing."

Don Harding was the type of teacher that tried to be pals with their students. It wasn't a bad thing, but Dean had to wonder at someone who still used the term rap when he wasn't talking about music. The guy sounded as if he'd stepped out of an after school special from the seventies.

"More disturbing than those guys?" Dean didn't bother to hide his disbelief as he gestured towards the masks they'd seen when they'd first walked into the art classroom.

Don almost laughed, but sobered quickly.

"She would cover page after page with these bizarre, cryptic symbols." His voice became even more serious. "And then there where the drawings. Detailed images of killings. Gory, primitive. She would depict herself in the middle of them, participating."

Well, Dean had to admit, that was disturbing.

Sam asked him about the symbols, showing Don the coin they'd gotten from the hex bag.

"Yeah, yeah. I think that might have been one of them."

They thanked him for his time.

On the way out of the classroom, Dean sent an amused glance towards a kid standing near the art room's kilns. It took him a moment to recognize Justin without the Halloween costume. The teen was attempting to appear nochalant while hiding a giant clay hookah behind his back. He wasn't very good at playing it cool, nearly having a heart attack when Dean paused to smile at him.

"I think you're going to need a bigger kiln." Justin gulped and he heard Sam groan slightly at the Jaws misquote. Dean's smile turned into a smirk.

He chuckled all the way back to the car.

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Tracy's apartment was a bust. Not only wasn't she there, from what they could tell after they let themselves in she had no intention of returning any time soon. As far as Sam was concerned, the only high point of the day was watching Dean have to give up some of his candy stash to a kid dressed as an astronaut.

And it only went downhill after he opened the door to their room.

"Cas." Sam felt Dean perk up behind him.

"And Uriel." The younger Winchester said with a slump to his voice as he noticed the other angel standing by the windows. Their current babysitter gave them a look before turning his gaze back to the window and the parking lot outside.

"Sam. Dean." Castiel nodded at both of them. "Have you found the witch yet?"

"No, but we know who it is." Dean told him.

Sam opened his mouth to say something about them not knowing who the second witch was yet, and ended up making a squeaking noise as Dean poked him in the butt. His mouth snapped shut as he realized that his brother had been quicker on the uptake than he had been. If Cas was asking about one witch, then that was all Uriel knew about.

That same angel snorted at them. "The witch knows who you are too."

The brother's gave Uriel a narrowed eyed glance before turning back to Castiel with questioning looks.

Cas walked over to the nightstand and picked up a hex bag. "This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it…"

"We'd probably have suffered a Halloween related death." Dean finished for him. Beside him, Sam made a disturbed noise.

"What?"

"We wouldn't have just been dead Dean. We might very well have been the replacement sacrifices for the two that have already been stopped."

"Awesome." As usual, Dean managed to load that word with an overflowing amount of sarcasm. He gave Cas a hopeful look. "Don't suppose you know where she is?"

The angel shook his head. "This witch is very powerful. She's cloaked even to our methods."

"Naturally."

Uriel turned and joined the conversation fully. "There is a simple solution to all of this."

Given how Cas' back stiffened, Dean suspected it wasn't a good one.

"The two of you leave town and we destroy it."

Dean looked like he'd just bitten into a lemon. "Smite the town. That's your big plan?"

"We are running out of time."

"So what." Dean shrugged. I mean… the demon and all the things he'll raise. That sounds like our kind of problem, not Heavens."

Castiel sighed. "The raising of Samhain is one of the 66 seals. There is some concern over what may happen if it breaks while the last seal is reforming."

"What? Is it going to pop the lock?"

"We don't know."

Dean ran a hand through his hair in an aggravated motion. "I don't know is not a good enough reason to kill a thousand people for."

Cas gave him a slight nod. "I agree."

"Castiel." Uriel gave him a shocked look. One Dean had to smirk at.

"We can do this Cas. We will find the witch and stop the summoning."

The angel gave him another nod. "Move quickly."

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"So, we'll start with naughty nurse and that Justin kid. See if they know where Tracy might have gone to ground." Dean said once they'd gotten into the car.

"Mmm."

Dean turned slightly in his seat to see his brother looking over the contents of the hex bag that had had their names on it.

"That any different from the last one?"

"No." Sam's voice was very distracted.

"Okay, give. What's up?"

Sam held up the bone. "Do you know how much heat it would take to char a bone like this?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me Mr. Science."

"An ordinary fire or a kitchen stove wouldn't get hot enough. What you'd really need... is a kiln."

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Dean walked over to one of the art room's kilns, opened it and looked inside. While he did this, Sam went to the teacher's desk.

Not finding anything in the circular oven, Dean closed it and joined his brother.

"Okay, so Tracy used one of the kilns to char the bones. What's the big deal?"

Sam continued to search the desk as he answered him. "Dean, that hex bag turned up in our room not…" He punctuated the sentence with a raised finger. "…after we talked to Tracy."

"But after we talked to the teacher." Dean finished.

This was when Sam found a locked drawer. A couple of blows from a handy hammer later and they were looking down into a bowl of small bones and teeth.

"My God. Those are all from children."

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Castiel found Uriel sitting on a park bench, his expression mutinous.

"What was that about?"

Cas gave him a brief look before turning to watch as a group of trick-or-treating children dressed in costumes passed by.

"I agreed with him. I saw no reason not to let him know it. Besides, you know our true orders."

"Yes, but I thought you weren't any more happy about them than I am."

Cas shook his head. "The only problem I have with them is that we hamper the righteous man by not telling him we are under his orders. It is hard to assess a leader when they don't even know they are in charge."

"Please, this is bad enough. If he knew he'd probably have ordered me to flap my arms and cluck like a chicken."

There was only a slight flinch in Castiel's eyes at Uriel's statement. He couldn't argue with the other angel, because knowing Dean's sense of humour he was probably right.

The image it brought to mind was amusing though.

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The altar was ready. The final sacrifice stood with her hands tied above her, her mouth gagged, helpless, struggling and unable to cast even the most minor spell in her defence. Now all that was needed was for the two hunters to return to their motel room and the hex bag would do the rest, making them the first two sacrifices.

He would finish the spell once he felt their deaths.

Any time now.

He glanced at his watch and had to stop himself from impatiently tapping the sacrificial dagger against the top of the chalice. A few more minutes and he'd be forced to go grab the closest trick-or-treaters to act as the sacrifices, something he didn't want to do, as he didn't want to risk leaving his dear, dear sister alone. Even hanging from the ceiling, he didn't trust her to stay there like a good little victim.

He lasted another five minutes of fidgeting.

"Just hang tight. I'll be back with a couple of playmates in a few minutes."

"Yeah, I don't think so."

He knew he'd been busy annoying his sister, but he still should have noticed the hunters enter the house. That his wards hadn't picked them up was disturbing and as it turned out, deadly. A quick gesture and a couple of words were all he would have needed to send them flying, but they managed to get two bullets into him before he'd half completed the spell. He had enough time for his face to gain a shocked expression before he dropped to the ground, dead.

Dean gave the body a couple of light kicks to make sure that he was certifiably dead, while Sam walked over to the altar.

"Mmmppphhh."

Dean looked up at the hanging witch and smiled. "Sorry babe, but we're not that stupid."

"Mmmmphh!" Was the angry reply to that.

Dean gave her one more smirk and then went to help Sam dismantle the altar.

Crushing what they could, they bunched the remnants and the still whole items up in the alter cloth, intending to salt and burn it and its contents as soon as possible.

Sam took a quick glance back at the fuming witch. "So, what do we do about her?"

Dean grimaced. It was one thing to kill a witch when they were trying to kill you, another to kill one when it was helpless. Still, that didn't mean he was going to give her a free pass. He couldn't afford to.

"I guess I'll just have to gan…"

A choking noise had them turning to find Crowley cleaning blood off the blade of a knife, a sour look on his face.

"Morons."

With a blink, he was gone again.

"Jeez, what was his problem?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged and went to make certain that Tracy was dead. "Uh, Dean."

"What?"

Sam pointed at her tied wrists, one of which was almost completely free of the ropes.

"Oh, I guess that was his problem."

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Dean was sitting on a bench in the park, enjoying the day, when Cas appeared on the bench beside his.

"So, how'd we do?"

Castiel smiled slightly. "Better than last time. Although that is not surprising, as you were working with less information and less help that time."

Dean nodded and looked around. "So, where's the dou… uh, I mean, where's Uriel?"

"He had an appointment with our superior. I believe he intends to ask to be relieved of his duties concerning you and your brother."

"Damn, I didn't think it would take this long to break him."

Cas rubbed a hand over his mouth and Dean grinned, knowing that the angel was trying to hide a smile of his own.

"Well, we'll be glad to have you back. Although…how long are you going to keep hanging with the di…with the other angels?"

Cas heaved out a breath that was almost a sigh. "Not much longer I suspect. I had hoped to discover what the last seal has become before I burn my bridges…" He shook his head. "But I may not have the luxury of that much time."

"Are they suspicious?"

"No more than usual." Cas glanced up, double-checking that their conversation was still hidden from his bosses. "According to the prophet, the realities are starting to blend. He's beginning to see only one path, and it's the current one."

Dean watched the children play for a moment as he turned that piece of information over in his mind. "That's what you wanted to tell me, back in dreamland."

Cas nodded.

"Nobody's noticed?"

"I believe that the one being that is actually paying attention isn't telling. However, someone will start putting it together, eventually. It would be better if I am already gone by the time that happens."

"Any safe way to do it?"

Castiel gave his friend a look.

"Yeah, guess that's a no."

"Unfortunately." Cas sighed. "Thankfully, unlike last time I will not be completely cut off from Heaven, as I will not technically fall. I will likely be denied direct access, so I have created ways into the system that should allow me to gather power and information without being noticed.

Dean choked. "You hacked Heaven?"

"Your friend Ash helped."

Dean sucked in a startled breath. "Ash?"

Cas nodded. "His soul moved onto Heaven after the roadhouse burned down. Unlike most souls who stay in their own heavens, Ash quickly learned to travel the pathways between them. Something only angels usually do."

"And he helped you find a back door into Heaven?"

"Essentially, yes."

Dean laughed. "Man, wait 'til I tell Sammy."

"Just make sure Uriel isn't there when you do."

Dean's answer to that was a snort and a nod. He frowned as a thought crossed his mind.

"Ash is a smart guy. Maybe he could help you figure out that last seal thing."

Castiel blinked. He hadn't thought of that.

"I will ask him about it the next time I see him."

"Good. He can help. Something like that should stick out anyways."

Cas tilted his head. "Yes. It would have to be rare, have great power, be tainted in some way and as the seal stopped forming something must be protecting it at the… moment."

Why did the memory of giving Anna a hex bag that blocked her connection to the angels come to mind just then?

Cas' eyes widened as the epiphany hit him, going from a vague feeling and a pinpoint of information to full blown understanding. Everything fell into place. Uriel giving Anna's grace to Zachariah. Zachariah lying about knowing what the last seal was. The forming of that seal stopping as soon as Anna was protected.

Dean flinched when Cas said something short, sharp and obviously nasty in Enochian. The word felt like sandpaper rubbed along his skin and he looked down at himself, almost expecting to find that he was bleeding.

"Cas?"

"I am an idiot."

"Well…"

The angel glared at him and Dean smirked back at him.

"Don't sweat it man. It doesn't matter how powerful and knowledgeable you are, when it comes to being stupid, we're all equal."

Castiel winced, that was one statement he knew all to well to be true.

He just wished he had a little less first hand knowledge of it.