13
Crowley strolled past Sam and Dean.
"Hello, boys, fancy meeting you here," he remarked. Dean glared after him and Sam followed suit. "Surprised it's taken you this long to get around to this strange little burg."
"What do you want, Crowley?" Dean asked.
"Well, for once, we're on the same team here, boys," Crowley said more to Sam and Dean than to Tabris. "This angels-from-humans idea of yours is a terrible one, Tabris."
"How did you find out about it?" Dean demanded.
"When my mother goes digging through my personal archives for a barrier spell that no one's used in over 200 years, it piques my interest. So I put a tiny tracking spell on the parchment," he confessed.
"Why?" Dean questioned.
"I wanted to know what it was that she was trying so hard to keep in or out. Normally I would have guessed me, but this was different."
Tabris began to speak again, but Crowley held up a finger.
"I'm not finished," he said politely. "Now, if I know about your little plans—who else do you think knows about this? I think you lot tend to forget because he's been gone from Heaven for so long that Lucifer is, in fact, still an angel."
"Not just an angel—an archangel," Sam put in.
"He's been eavesdropping on Angel Radio," Dean paled.
"That is a very distinct possibility," Crowley deadpanned. "My suggestion would be to pack it in. Radio to Heaven or whatever it is that you do that the mission's been scrubbed," he finished briskly. "Put everything back like it was, and walk away. Or we will all have problems that even Sam and Dean Winchester couldn't fix."
"Of course you would want that to happen," Tabris said through gritted teeth. "You can commandeer any vessel you want."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nathan asked Dean.
"Demons don't have to ask to take control of your body, they just do it. Angels must ask your permission—and it's a risk that the person they choose can't contain them, then—kablooey. Literally."
"Messy business," Crowley wrinkled his nose.
"I'm curious as to know how you knew that this thinny was here, Alice," Paige said. "Humans can't see them."
"She's not fully human though, are you, love?" Crowley said, looking Alice over. "You're from her side of the woods, well; part of you is anyway," he jerked his head towards Paige, "minus the engineering to make her age like a human."
"Is that true, Alice? You're part Otherworlder?" Nathan asked.
"I didn't know it until I saw the thinny," Alice confessed. "I was out here with some-other people—and they couldn't see it."
"You never came into town when Charlotte was categorizing Troubles," Dwight remembered. "You weren't on the Troubled census."
"A fact I was innately grateful for when Croatoan sent Duke out on his little killing spree," Alice remarked drily.
"But your magic is not a Trouble, it's still here," Paige said.
"That could explain why your magic's so strong too," Rowena added.
"If what Crowley's saying is true, I'd scrub the mission," Dean spoke to Tabris. "We just stopped the last apocalypse."
"There was an apocalypse?" McHugh puzzled.
"But the thing is, what to do about your—protégées," Crowley continued, eyeing Kirk and Jordan. "The one was disposed of easily enough. You lot don't seem terribly upset about it, I have to say," he remarked.
"The Rev wasn't a well-liked man in our circles," Nathan answered, and Crowley nodded, satisfied with his response.
"I could deal with the other two easily enough, but this one, however-especially this one—not so much," he gestured to Duke. "I would suggest feeding him to that hole over there and seal it off for good. That's what it wants, anyway."
"Wait—you can hear aether?" Nathan said.
"Not so much hear it as sense what it wants," Crowley told him. "Aether—think of it as an extremely watered-down version of Leviathans. It doesn't have good intentions, not for your specie anyway," he flapped his hand at Nathan and the others.
"Are you serious?" Sam breathed his eyes wide. "Leviathans are making this stuff?"
"I didn't say they were making it—just that it's got similar properties to them," Crowley replied.
"If-and that's a big if-that's true, you need to stop this mission right now," Dean ordered Tabris.
"Leviathans are indeed dangerous creatures," Tabris replied, thinking it over.
"For those of us just tuning into the program, would you mind telling us what Leviathans are?" Dwight asked.
"They were the First Beasts created by God," Dean began. "They are really, really bad news. They eat anything-even each other. So God locked them away in Purgatory—they got out a while back."
"We put them back in, but it was at a heavy cost," Sam said.
Dean looked grim. "We lost damn good people doing it too."
"You just want us to throw our friend into the Void and just be like 'oh well' about it?" Nathan asked, putting his hand on Duke's shoulder.
"Look," Crowley sighed, being unusually patient for a change. "I know it's a lot to swallow, and this is probably way above your pay grades, but it would be the best thing to do, unless you have another solution in mind."
"No," Paige said fiercely. "Even if he doesn't remember us, we couldn't do that to Duke. Or to Kirk and Jordan," she added.
"Spare me your charity," Kirk sneered at her, and Nathan glared at him.
"Could always come and work for me, mate," Crowley suggested. "Afraid you'll never get to Heaven, but an up-and-comer like you could make something of himself in Hell."
Kirk glanced at him, but didn't respond.
"Tabris—the last thing in the world any of us needs is Lucifer underfoot," Sam pleaded. "You know that and we know that. These people certainly don't need him interfering with them."
"You've seen Lucifer?" McHugh said, incredulous. "You mean the Lucifer with the horns and the cape and all that stuff?"
"Like Crowley said, Lucifer is an angel, he's got a vessel just like Cas and Tabris do," Dean told them, and pulled out his phone, showing them a picture. "Have you seen this guy around town lately?"
"Can't say as I have," Dwight replied, and the others shook their heads.
"Not his best photo," Crowley said, peering at the phone.
"You're telling me that's the Prince of Darkness," Dwight said doubtfully.
"That's him," Dean said. "You see this guy around, it's gonna hit the fan, big-time, because it's a whole lot easier to make demons than angels."
"Very true," Crowley murmured.
"That's what he claims," Duke finally spoke. "You wouldn't want angels around to deal with your kind, would you?"
"While that is somewhat true, I do understand the need for them, however large a pain in my backside they may be," Crowley murmured, eyeing Duke, who gazed back at him steadily. "Mother—do you think you could jostle his memory?" he asked.
"Ye know how dangerous that can be, Fergus," Rowena told him.
"It'll be more dangerous if he doesn't remember himself," Crowley replied. "Tabris has him all gung-ho to break through to there. It'd be better if he remembered why that isn't a good idea."
"You seem to know an awful lot about us, Mr. Crowley," Nathan said, his tone even. "May I ask why all the interest?"
"I was interested, mate," Crowley shrugged. "I first came here to this country ages ago. Met the Troubles' creator; she was a feisty girl, but unwilling to be cooperative. This is her vessel, but she's not there any longer, is she, love?" he asked Paige.
"No, she died when Charlotte recombined us," Paige said.
"Fascinating," Crowley answered. "Anyway, that would be my recommendation."
Tabris glanced at the other angels, and Dean wondered if they could read one another's minds, before Tabris spoke again.
"I will—consult with the others about this matter," he said. "However, Duke remains with us," he finished, and began to gesture to Duke, but Rowena reacted swiftly.
"Prohibere!" she commanded, and Duke vanished. Tabris looked extremely angry, but departed with the other angels.
"W-what'd you do with him?" Nathan burst out.
"Dean, if ye'd be so kind as to make me a place to put him," Rowena said, and Dean and Sam quickly reached for what looked like a gas can, pouring it into a circle on the ground.
"Hit it," Dean told her.
"Prius incoepit claritas," Rowena toned, and Dean threw his lighter into the substance he and Sam had poured out just as Duke reappeared.
"What the hell is that stuff?" McHugh exclaimed, as Duke roared his rage at being confined.
"Holy fire," Dean answered. "It'll hold him for a minute—long enough for us to get him under control."
He reached into his back pocket and took out a set of manacles.
"You think handcuffs will hold him?" Jordan mocked.
"These will," Cas explained as Dean grabbed Duke from behind, pinning his arms down as Sam managed to fasten the shackles around his wrists.
"They're angel cuffs," Sam panted, as Duke jerked his arms trying to separate them, but failed. He glared at the group, his eyes blazing.
"Damn, Tabris has gotten awfully close," Crowley commented. "But that Grace he's been force-feeding him isn't gonna last forever. Will it, Castiel?" he asked sweetly.
"Shut up, Crowley," Dean and Cas chorused.
"Now for them," Sam said, and turned to look back at Jordan and Kirk, but they had vanished.
"Looks like dear old Dad's called them back to the homestead," Crowley said. "They'll be back soon enough."
"Is that barrier you built going to hold?" Dean asked Rowena and Alice.
"You'd have to have a team of archangels to smash that down," Rowena said.
"Well, no danger of that," Sam exhaled. "Can you fix him—like you did Dean that time?"
"What's been done ta him is entirely different than what happened to Dean, Samuel," Rowena protested.
"Please," Nathan pleaded his eyes bright. "If you can do anything to help him—"
"I can try," Rowena sighed. "No promises—if it doesn't work—"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Sam said, and glanced at Nathan, who put his arms around Paige. "If we have to—"he trailed off, but Nathan nodded understanding, his eyes on his friend, who at the moment was glaring at him as though he'd cheerfully rip his heart out.
"If it comes to that," Nathan repeated. "But we try everything else first, right?"
"Right," Dean said.