They walked briskly along the unkempt concrete road next to an old warehouse. There were hundreds of wooden pallets stacked to one side of the yard but nothing about the place suggested it was recently used. The metal siding was rusted and falling off and there were no vehicles on the property.
"Where the hell are we?" Dean asked.
"Van Nuys, California." Cas stated.
He looked around, a little lost. "Where's the beautiful room?"
He barely nodded towards the old building. "In there."
"The beautiful room is in an abandoned muffler factory in Van Nuys, California?" He felt cheap.
"Where'd you think it was?"
"I don't know, Jupiter?" They stopped in front of the warehouse doors and saw an old, dirty sign reading Pacific Mufflers & Exhaust. Yeah, that totally made sense to be heavens waiting room. What the hell. "A blade of grass, not…Van Nuys."
Sam was more focused on the task at hand, rather than waste time on the details. "Tell me again why you don't just grab Adam and zap the hell out of there?"
"Because there are at least five angels in there."
"So?" Dean stated confidently. "They're fast."
"They're faster." He admitted, and he removed his tie with a quiet release of breath. "I'll clear them out. You two grab the boy. This is our only chance."
"Wait wait, you're gonna take on five angels?"
He looked at him with slight impatience. "Yes."
Dean felt his point was made. "Isn't that suicide?"
"Maybe it is. These things are necessary." He glanced to the doors. "I trust you're in the right mindset to keep Michael away from you now."
He felt the accusation in his words and shifted uncomfortably. "Cas I…I didn't know."
"It shouldn't have mattered." Cas drew a utility knife out of his pocket and extended the blade.
Sam looked at it; it seemed an odd weapon against five angels. "What are you gonna do with that?"
"It would be easier if you did it." He handed the knife to Dean and started unbuttoning his shirt.
His fingers instinctively retracted the blade and he watched him uneasily. "Do what?"
"Carve the Enochian sigil to use against the angels." He pulled his shirt open.
Dean tilted his head. "I'm sorry, you want to put the symbol…on your body. Did I hear that right? Won't that do something to you?"
"Not until it's activated."
"Yeah, about that." He grimaced. "I'm not comfortable with that." He raised the knife to Sam.
"Do it." Cas demanded. "So that you realize the lengths we're going through to stop this."
Don't piss off the nerd angels. His own words echoed in his head and he decided not to argue with him, if anything to save himself from another ass-kicking. Dean took a breath and grabbed his shoulder. He slowly carved the sigil into his chest and Cas didn't make a sound. Again, he was more of force to be reckoned with than Dean had realized. When he was done Cas buttoned his shirt and nodded to them confidently.
"Wait for it to quiet down." He walked into the warehouse.
Dean pushed the door shut behind him.
"It really is the end of the world." Sam stated.
"Quick thinking brainiac."
He shook his head. "Dean Winchester got engaged and found out he was gonna be a father in the same day. Are you sure it happened in that order? Is this gonna be a shotgun wedding?"
"Dude." He scoffed. "You know how long I've had that ring."
"I'm just messing with you." They quieted for a moment as the sounds of struggle echoed through the warehouse. "What are you going to do about hiding him?"
"Hiding him?"
"Dean, you're a hunter. And a pretty infamous one at that. I mean, you've seen them go after Kayla but can you imagine if you actually had a son? Do you know how many things you've pissed off enough to go after your kids?"
He met his gaze and held it; the ignorant happiness of the news was slowly fading. "Could we be normal for five freakin' minutes?"
Sam grimaced. "Unfortunately not."
The warehouse went quiet.
"You ready for this?"
"Absolutely not." Dean grumbled and went though the door, pulling it securely closed behind him.
The inside of the building looked just as crappy and abandoned as the outside. Random stacks of pallets, leftover plywood and a whole lot of nothing. A body, presumably an angel from the look of the wound, lay dead on the floor in front of a smaller room. Cas must have smoked him before zapping the rest of them out.
Dean cautiously opened the door to the room and inside found the familiar 'heavenly' holding cell. Clean, pristine, it might as well be another dimension. There were no angels in sight but Adam lay against the far wall with blood dripping from his mouth. As he ran over he heard the door shut behind him.
"Adam, hey, you alright?" Those fucking bastards were gonna pay for this.
Aside from the obvious discomfort of whatever injury the angels laid on him, he looked pleasantly confused. "You came for me."
"Yeah well, you're family." He helped him off the ground and draped his arm over his shoulders.
"Dean, it's a trap."
"I figured."
"Dean." Zachariah blocked their path to the door. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"
"Did you?"
Sam moved as fast as he could but he could have been standing still. Zachariah turned and casually flicked his hand to send him flying across the room. The boys were a sorry excuse for martyrs.
"You know what I've learned from this experience, Dean?" He smiled pleasantly at him. "Patience." His hand went up again and a thick river of blood flowed from Adam's mouth.
"Adam." He tried to keep him up but he hit his knees. "Let him go you son of a bitch."
"I mean I thought I was downsized for sure and for us, a firing, it's pretty damn literal."
Dean didn't respond, he was checking back and forth on his brothers; Sam was starting to come to after his run in with the wall and Adam had lowered himself to the floor, writhing in pain.
"But I should've trusted the boss man." He eased himself on to the table. "It's all turning out like he said. You, me, your hemorrhaging brothers." The sickening sound of Adam choking on his own fluids was like music to his ears. He raised a hand towards Sam to give him the same treatment. "You're finally ready, right? You know there's no other choice, there's never been a choice."
"Stop." But his voice was barely above a whisper and hardly menacing. He mustered up some determination. "Stop it right now."
"In exchange for…what?"
"Damn it Zachariah. Stop it right now, please." He wasn't above begging at this point.
"Stop? I won't stop. Even after their dead, you know it'll go on." He approached Dean. "Don't you think for one second that I won't track down your little honey bun, and the seed she's carrying, just to piss you off."
His eyes softened and he bit back a wave of devastation. He looked between Sam and Adam, suffering on the floor. "I'll do it."
"I'm sorry," Zach touched his ear. "What was that?"
"Okay yes." His voice was set in his decision. "The answer is yes."
"Dean." Sam coughed out, the shock evident on his face. He really did it, he really told them yes.
"Do you hear me? So call Michael down you bastard."
Even Zachariah was taken back. After all this time? "How do I know you're not lying?"
"Do I look like I'm lying?"
With a satisfying sigh he turned and looked towards the ceiling. His voice was laced with excitement as he began chanting. Dean looked at Sam on the floor and saw every ounce of his disappointment in that moment. He saw the devastation in his eyes; he'd trusted Dean to make the right decision and he gave up.
"He's coming." Zachariah smiled.
Dean winked at Sam. "Of course I have a few conditions."
He turned to him in a quiet panic. "What?"
"The few people's whose safety you have to guarantee before I say yes."
Relief washed through his face. Of course it would be a trivial request. "Sure, fine, make a list."
"But most of all, Michael can't have me, before he disintegrates you."
The smug confidence left his face and he furrowed his brow. "What did you say?"
"I said, before Michael gets one piece of this sweet ass, he has to turn you into a piece of charcoal."
He laughed in a high-pitched whine, one that wasn't intended to but absolutely did show his insecurity. "You really think Michael's gonna go for that?"
"Who's more important to him now? You, or me?"
In a lapse of composure Zachariah lurched forward and grabbed him by the jacket to growl in his face. "You listen to me. You are nothing but a maggot, inside a worm's ass. Do you know who I am? After I deliver you to Michael?"
"Expendable." He spit at him.
He laughed and shook his head. "Michael's not going to kill me."
"Maybe not." He felt a surge of complete satisfaction as Cas's weapon slid down his sleeve. Fuck with his family. "But I am." He drove that blade straight into his chin and through the top of that bastard's skull. Seeing his eyes light up with angel death was like Christmas morning.
The celebration had to wait. Zachariah was dead but the room was shaking violently and they heard that piercing ring of an angel's voice. Dean grabbed up Adam.
"Can you walk?"
He nodded and stared warily at the ceiling.
"Come on." He pulled Sam to his feet and helped him to the door. "Come on, move it!" He shouted to Adam but the door shut behind them.
Adam pounded desperately at the closed door. "No! Dean help!"
He set Sam on the ground and ran back. As he grabbed the handle it burned his hand and he jerked it back.
"It won't open, Dean, hurry!" Adam screamed from the other side.
"Hold on!" He touched the wooden frame and it made a sizzling sound as it burned his hand. "We'll get you out, just hold on! Adam!" The ringing and the light coming from the room faded. He tried the handle and it was nothing but cold metal. It made an uneventful creak as it pushed open and there was nothing but an old office inside. Adam was gone.
