"He got away?!"
Dylan was furious. She glared angrily at the three men and two angels who sat and stood sporadically around their hotel headquarters, all of them avoiding her eye contact and hopefully, her ire.
It didn't work so well.
"There were FIVE of you. How did he GET AWAY?!"
"You grabbed that thing from him and ran off…which royally pissed HIM off." Sam spoke up, grimacing down at his somehow charred bellhop uniform. "We couldn't contain him, he was so angry."
Dylan rolled her eyes. "Of course he was angry. I'd nabbed the only two methods he'd brought with him to activate the croatoan virus." She turned to rummage around in her duffel bag. "Which are worrisome in their own rights." She handed the two vials to Bobby, who held them at eye level.
"The first looks a bit like," Bobby began slowly.
"The swine flu vaccine laced with croatoan that you guys supposedly completely destroyed in season five?" Dylan shrugged. "You'd be right."
"How'd he get that?" Dean asked incredulous.
Dylan crossed her arms and leaned back against the dresser. "Like I said, worrisome."
Sam leaned over Bobby's shoulder to look at the other vial. "What's this one then?"
"Air born pathogen." Cas answered, eyebrows furrowing in concern.
"OOOH." Gabriel shuddered. "That's not good at all."
"Thank you Gabe, for the obvious." Dean rolled his eyes. Gabe shrugged from where he sat in one of the table chairs, playfully kicking Cas every now and then, who sat opposite him.
"So we have the virus. That's a plus." Dylan stretched her neck with a wince. "We don't have Crowley, which is a problem."
"But we might have a way to get at him." Gabe spoke up. Sam and Dean shot glares his way, and he shrugged. "Well, we might."
"Out of the question." Sam shook his head. Dean grunted.
Dylan narrowed her eyes. She turned to Bobby; who listened to reason instead of feelings, and put her hands on her hips. Still dressed in her fatigues, which were utterly pristine when compared to everyone elses dirty and charred clothing, she painted a picture of authority that Bobby could not ignore. He shrugged.
"We aren't entirely useless." He began sarcastically. "Crowley spilled what the whole playing card thing meant,"
"Three of hearts." Dylan commented. "Which stands for…."
"Dean and Sam and I." Cas inputted.
Dylan's eyes widened as she nodded. "Alright. So the whole revenge story is still in play then."
"Looks like." Sam nodded. "He was also spouting off about souls."
"Like the souls he could've got from purgatory but he didn't because Cas backed out?" Dylan crossed her arms again. "Hmm. Interesting. Anything else of importance?"
Dean shrugged. "Just something about how women shouldn't be allowed positions of authority."
Dylan smirked. "Mysogynistic, but not ultimately important."
"There was also his parting remark about how he had a woman soldier who took something that belonged to him to meet up with." Gabe blurted out, speaking quickly so no one could interrupt him. Dean and Sam shot him glares of death, but he ignored them in favor of holding eye contact with Dylan.
Dylan squinted. Then she brightened. "So I'll be bait."
Dean shot up and Sam took a step forward, both of their faces dark with anger.
"No." Sam argued.
"Not happening," Cas agreed, though he didn't rise.
"Absolutely NOT." Dean added.
Dylan hissed.
It was so unexpected and shocking that everyone froze and went silent.
"Enough." She ordered.
"It's not that they think you're incapable." Bobby spoke lowly.
Dylan rolled her eyes. "I know." She spoke just as softly. "It's because they care. But," Her voice gained strength. "We have the advantage here. Crowley doesn't know I'm associated with you; he won't be expecting this, and it's our only immediate chance. Let's stop the body count rise…TODAY." She caught everyone's gaze. Bobby nodded immediately, Sam huffed, but inclined his head after a moment, Gabe winked, Cas shrugged, and Dean…
Dean met her gaze head on, conflicted. She smiled, a small quirk of her mouth, and Dean took a deep breath, and then looked away.
Dylan shrugged. That was probably about as good as it was going to get. "I'll head back to the barracks; make myself visible." She checked her phone, the lock screen read 2:15. "At approximately 6:50 I will separate myself from the crowds and make my way to hit up the bar on base." She nodded, slipped her phone into her pocket, and grinned at the group assembled before her. Gabe was the only one who returned her smile. "Let's get this done." She finished. The door slammed shut behind her and Dean looked at his brother, exasperated.
Sam just shrugged. "Let's hope this works."
"Maybe we'll get lucky?" Bobby tried.
Dean snorted. "We're not that lucky."
At 7:12pm, staring down at a trapped-inside-a-devil's-trap, Crowley, the entire group assembled inside the empty storage room they'd commandeered for the evening, Dean had to eat his words.
"It worked." He blurted out, shocked.
Crowley sneered. "Congratulations." He retorted. He spread his hands as he took a gander around the room. "The accommodations are quite lovely, the company significantly less so, and I have to admit, I didn't think you'd catch me." He inclined his head. "But now you have, so I acquiesce. Ask your questions."
When Cas stepped forward, Crowley's lip curled without his permission. "Ah." He tilted his head. "Have you figured it out then?"
"Figured what out?" Dean asked, wishing Dylan were there. She knew how to get people to spill their guts…figuratively speaking, of course. But probably also literally, if her army stories were to be believed.
"My motive." Crowley rolled his eyes. "Obviously you haven't. Wonderful."
"It's Obviously," Gabe mocked Crowleys accent, "Because Cas reneged on his deal with you over splitting the souls in purgatory, and you're "OBVIOUSLY," just picking up the souls you were planning on in a different way…you're just a bit more picky about WHICH souls you're taking."
"You've made it personal." Bobby added.
"Of course I did!" Crowley scoffed. "This IS personal!"
"With you and Cas, sure." Dean snorted. "I can totally see that. But what do Sam and I have to do with it? Why are you taking souls WE saved?"
"Are you really that dense?" Crowley asked incredulously. "I'm taking souls you've saved because It's YOUR fault I didn't get those purgatory souls!" He shrugged. "I would've taken your souls, except they're worth nothing."
"Yeah, but" Sam frowned, "How is it OUR fault?"
"Because you TALKED HIM OUT OF OUR DEAL!" Crowley roared.
"No they didn't." A new voice joined the fray, and everyone outside of Crowley grimaced. She wasn't going to be stupid about this…right?
Dylan burst in, the setting sun behind her back making her entrance a lot more majestic than it should've been. Add in the fatigues and the "I dare you" expression on her face, and it was quite the view.
Crowley's mouth gaped open as Dylan stepped further into the room, moving out of the bright shadow she'd created so Crowley could see who he was dealing with.
His eyes bulged, and his voice came out garbled, from the shock.
"The…" He had to try again as his voice failed. His surprise faded, and anger took its place.
"The soldier from the mountain?"