Yes people, that was a foreshadowing to the fact I am so going to unleash Loki on Crowley! XD
As for pairings, I am NOT going to put Sam and Loki/Harry together. I'm actually considering Joanna (Jo) instead.
Harry spat out a small amount of blood. Barely more than a few drops of it really.
At least now he had solved the mystery of how the yellow-eyed demon got into the apartment.
He sent a demon-possessed Brady in to do the deed. The same Brady who tried to introduce Sam to Jessica, had his association with Harry not changed things enough that they didn't get together.
Unknown to the demon, Harry had Gabriel transmit everything from the second he entered the apartment and started the torture session. For the moment the cops were getting a run-around trying to find who the one being attacked was, even though Brady's name had come up pretty quick the second it started transmitting on their computers. All of their computers.
The moment he got tired of playing with the demon, he was going to cut the bonds and slam the chair on the bastard. He didn't like torture...at least not when he was the victim.
Finally he had enough...and besides the cops were trying alternate methods to locate the apartment. It had taken a few minutes in to realize that he was somehow broadcasting live, and that it wasn't a prank.
Harry summoned a dagger and cut the bonds. Then he took a firm grip on the back of the chair...and slammed it hard against Brady's thick skull.
The feed cut off the second he hit the pest, so the cops wouldn't know he was interrogating the demon who wouldn't be able to escape the devil's trap he had painted on the ceiling the moment Sam left. He was well aware of how Jessica had died the first time, and had little desire to share her fate.
Not that the flames would have bothered him. He was Loki, for Valhalla's sake. Plus if he had been worried he would have used the flame freezing charm or if all else failed, the Infinity Gems.
Gabriel would keep the cops chasing their tails up until he was done. Then he would tie the demon up, restart the feed, and then watch the show.
It was a good thing that out of the two of them, the only one who actually liked Brady as a friend was Sam. Of course one of the first things he would get out of this nuisance was if the man was still alive.
Loki gleefully tied the demon up and made sure the idiot was given veritaserum before he woke up.
"Now I'm going to show you my definition of playing," he smirked. The demon shivered.
It was like he had been locked in a long, personal torture session with Alistair himself.
"Let's get started shall we?" said Loki cheerily.
Sam heard the phone go off shortly after rescuing Dean from the police station. Thanks to long exposure to Harry, he was able to get his brother out with minimal fuss.
Dean however, was giving his brother odd looks.
"Okay, when did you develop that much snark?" he asked.
"I live with Harry. You tend to develop it after the first three months, if he doesn't drive you off first. Speak of the devil," said Sam, looking at his phone.
Within the first three seconds, Sam's expression went from amused, to shocked, to outright horrified.
Dean waited patiently, before Sam put it on speaker.
"So far I've gotten very little out of Brady. I told you there was something off about him," said Harry.
"Are you sure he was possessed?"
"Sam, he came into the apartment, knocked me out and then tied me to the chair while proceeding to torture me, all with black eyes. Bastard should be glad I only brained him with the chair he had me tied to rather than grab one of my swords...not that it mattered. Apparently Brady had been dead for two months from a knife wound to the chest. Cops were baffled as to how he died in the cell when I didn't go anywhere near him with a blade," replied Harry. Sam could practically hear the vindictive amusement in his voice as he added "Should have seen the expression on his face when he realized I salted the cell and used the exorcism on him. He was literally trapped with no escape before I threw that salt-crusted iron dagger at the smoke."
"You alright?"
"I'm pissed off, but I'm fine. Fortunately the idiot didn't expect me to have a devil's trap painted on the ceiling hidden under a tarp that matched the paint. After I broke out and beaned him with the chair, I had plenty of time to get some information out of him. Sam, I think you should know that the demon wasn't after me. He was trying to send a message to you."
"What?!" said Dean.
"According to the demon inside Brady, his job was to kill me and then pin my corpse on the ceiling before setting the place on fire. They want you to go back hunting with your brother for some big plan of a demon called Azazel. According to the demon he's the one who killed your mother," said Harry.
Over twenty years of searching for the yellow-eyed demon, and they finally had his name. All because a demon pissed off the wrong lawyer. Dean almost laughed himself sick, and it wasn't even funny.
"I'll head back as soon as I can," said Sam.
"Finish your hunt. We'll figure out how to handle this when you return," said Harry firmly.
He hung up, leaving too shocked brothers in his wake.
"We finish this tonight," said Dean firmly. Sam nodded in agreement.
Elsewhere five states over...
John Winchester was about to hunt down another lead to the yellow eyed demon when he got another call from Dean. He only half-listened to the message when he heard something that had him playing it again.
He had to have misheard that.
"Dad...we found the demon's name. Sam's roommate managed to get it out of one of his lackeys."
John Winchester nearly called Dean for more information. How in the hell did Sam's roommate at Stanford find out the demon's name when he hadn't in twenty years of looking for the bastard?!
Looked like he would have to pay attention to his son's calls after all.
Dean stared at the vial of what looked like water, complete with an eye dropper.
"What is that?"
"Veritaserum. An extremely valuable, hard to brew truth serum. Three drops and you're forced to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It literally removes your ability to lie until it wears off. Of course the fact I apparently had the same smirk as someone called Alistair didn't help matters," said Harry flatly.
"I don't believe it," said Dean.
Harry smirked, and thanks to a little slight of hand he put three drops in Dean's beer. Five minutes later Harry and Sam were having a bit of fun at Dean's expense getting him to spill all his dirty little secrets he would never dare admit under normal circumstances.
Needless to say Dean was convinced and Sam was trying not to laugh.
"So did he mention who Alistair is?" asked Sam, once his giggle fit was over.
"From what I've read, Alistair is the name of the top torture specialist in hell," said Harry dryly.
"Why does this not surprise me?" asked Sam equally dry.
"More like why doesn't it worry you that your best friend can scare even demons?"
"You've never seen him turn his snark on idiots before. There's a reason why his most popular nickname is Viper. When Harry gets pissed, he gets creative with his barbs," said Sam flatly.
"I've turned the most arrogant blowhard into a quivering waste of space within five minutes or less," said Harry proudly.
"So what now?"
"I can help Sam continue his education online. After what happened I doubt anyone will ask why I chose to do the same, and to be honest the only interesting person around here was Sam anyway. No one else has been able to keep up with me in the Law Club," said Harry.
Sam looked very much like he wanted to laugh.
"That's because none of them have the presence of mind to bring more than law books to keep your boredom to a minimum! Or know to talk to your AI like it's human!"
Sam had learned very quickly a bored Harry was a very dangerous Harry. He tended to play mean pranks if bored. So he started bringing his obscure hunting books with him during the mock trials to keep Harry entertained.
Worked better than giving him anything electronic.
Dean stared at the collection of weapons in Harry's possession.
Harry would be heading to Bobby's for more advice on hunting...and to offer his services as a freelance lawyer who wouldn't charge hunters to keep them out of jail if they got caught.
"Dude...why do you have such a huge arsenal?" Dean finally asked once they were well clear of Stanford and in some crappy motel.
"Boredom, mostly. I like to collect obscure weapons, particularly blades. Never know when you can catch someone off guard with something as under appreciated as a mace," said Harry immediately.
"Under appreciated...right," said Dean, looking at the variety with wide eyes.
"I also know how to enchant guns so they do extra damage to anything not human," added Harry.
"Sold," said Dean.
As far as they were concerned, Harry was a Wiccan. Or what hunters called borderline 'witches' who were smart enough not to accept any of hell's power to use magic. That didn't mean they were powerless, but it meant they were more likely to use runes and potions than hex bags.
Hunters tolerated them because they generally kept to themselves and were less likely to attack normal humans. Well that and they had to get supplies from somewhere, and most occult shops sold authentic holy water, among other things.
"So has your father called you back?"
"Not yet. Bet he had to listen to that message twice when I said we had a solid lead on who the demon was though," snorted Dean.
The Winchesters liked Harry because he was blunt and they all had 'daddy' issues. Dean and Sam because they were forced to become hunters at a young age, and Harry because as he had flatly told them, his father had the bad habit of seeing his older brother and ignoring him because he preferred to use his head rather than smash anything that got in his way.
Frankly if Dean really was as bad as the books Harry still had in his massive library said he was, he was going to break some of that 'father worship' crap and fast. Starting with his music collection.
So while Sam looked for a new hunt, Harry went to work either engraving runes with some crystal he happened to have on hand, or tinkering with something so complicated Dean couldn't make heads or tails of the thing.
"Got something. Looks like a wendigo," said Sam.
Actually his AI had been set to look for hunts online instead of him spending countless hours looking for something in the papers. He hadn't even known Harry had added that particular search function until Harry set 'Dean' to look for suspicious reports in the digital files of police stations nationwide.
Sure it was illegal as hell, but it would be pretty hard to prove it was Sam who hacked their files considering the fact that artificial intelligence was still considered science fiction at this point.
He was still in shock that 'Dean' and 'Gabriel' hacked the CIA and Homeland Security without setting off the FBI's internal alarms.
On the plus side, if they ever managed to get on the FBI's radar 'Dean' could erase all the files to the point where the feds couldn't actually find them. He couldn't do squat about the physical ones, but he could play merry hell with the lab equipment that was connected to the internet.
Pretty hard to compare DNA when there was an AI who was all too happy to 'change' the signature of it just so it didn't match.
A fact that would come in very handy after a bad encounter with a shifter who used Dean's face to kill with.
"Done. Your weapons can now hit ghosts even without salt rounds, do limited damage to the mid-level demons and cause a great deal of pain to the standard black eyed ones. And...I have an upgraded 'watch' for you Dean."
Sam perked up.
"Okay, how bored were you while you were waiting for us to come back if you made another 'watch'?" asked Sam.
"After the cops arrested 'Brady', I had a full day. So, extremely. All I have to do is use your computer to start it up, and Dean will have his own little friend to chat with and allow you two to keep in touch with me even when separated," said Harry.
"Wait...you mean you made another one of those mock-ghost things?" asked Dean.
"AI. And yes. Like I said, I was bored and I tend to keep the parts to make these things on hand so I can modify the current ones more easily. Sam knows how to use the basics, but I've left a few surprises in there for him to find."
Sam slid his computer over to Harry, who opened up a hidden slot in the 'watch', which was more like a miniature computer that looked like a digital watch, revealing a USB outlet.
Once he connected it to Sam's computer, it took five minutes for it to start up.
A black ball unfurled on the screen, revealing a man about the same size as 'Dean' with midnight black wings, black hair and intense blue eyes.
"Dean, meet Castiel."
Castiel was almost identical to James Novak, who would later become the angel's vessel. Not that Dean was aware of that fact just yet. The only difference was that Castiel had visible wings and intense blue eyes, whereas James Novak had brown eyes.
It would be funny to see how the brothers reacted to his book collection, and the fact he knew about them before he had ever met them.