Author's note: Thanks so much to Lakarfree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, CherylB1964, Nicolene B, AnninaSA, keacdragon, eiahlaie, Nyx Ro, Treeni, LeeMarieJack, Chichi-10018, BritishSweden, QuietCrash, Turtle Kid the Woolgatherer and Crazy as a Cheshire Cat for last chapter's reviews!
Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!
37
The demon was pleased with herself. She had reacted quickly and got one of the other demons possessing a doctor to intercept Dean Winchester before he could get to his brother's room. They had to keep the older brother busy while the female demon went to ensure there was no escape for Sam. The younger Winchester was injured and last seen unconscious, she could take him by herself. After that the other demon would lead Dean to his brother's room where they could take him on together.
Her bosses would be impressed with her quick thinking and success. Chances were the one she was directly working under these days would have fun conducting some of his experiments on Dean Winchester. There was no doubt that the big boss wanted Sam Winchester for himself. Lucifer's gratitude was more important to the demon in any case. The former archangel could be very moody and didn't tolerate mistakes, but he also rewarded good work on occasion.
The demon was in high spirits as she opened the door to Sam's room. It was a little surprising that the younger Winchester was awake, not that it mattered. He was still injured in a hospital bed. Whatever weapons Sam might have had when he was brought in were stored away, rendering the hunter effectively harmless.
"Well, well, who do we have there?" the demon asked with a smirk, allowing her eyes to turn black. There was nothing Sam could do to her. From what she heard when Dean spoke to the receptionist, the younger Winchester's injuries should make it impossible for him to run or fight. Something was definitely off though. "What are you grinning about?"
Sam shrugged and only continued to smile. The younger Winchester put his right hand over the place where his amulet was once more resting under his clothes. The demon only managed to take two more steps toward him, before she was stopped by an invisible force.
"He's just happy to see me," Gabriel commented, becoming visible again next to the demon. The archangel had just finished healing Sam when he felt trouble coming their way. Thinking of how they were in a public hospital with a lot of innocent bystanders, it seemed best to make sure their problem was solved as quietly as possible. So Gabriel let the demon come close, before he grabbed her with his powers.
The archangel had every intention to kill the demon quickly and without further ado, but when Gabriel stepped closer to her he sensed something unexpected. "Woah, girl, I hate to tell you, but you stink. Even for demon standards."
The demon scowled, but didn't say anything. Gabriel didn't need her to talk to know that her presence in the hospital was more than just a coincidence anyway. The demon obviously had been in contact with someone far more powerful than herself very recently. That someone had -most likely accidentally- left his marks.
"Sam!" Dean exclaimed as he burst into the room, two angels and another demon hot on his heels, "What were you thinking?"
The older Winchester had been surprised when Castiel and Balthazar suddenly popped up next to him in the hallway. Dean was even more surprised when the doctor the older Winchester was talking to, turned out to be a black-eyed demon. Dean wasn't sure how the angels knew where to find them or that they could use their help, but he couldn't deny that he was grateful they were there. Not that he'd ever tell Balthazar about it, but he made a mental note to thank Cas later.
"What was I thinking getting run over by a car? Nothing much," Sam replied with a snort, "It was an accident."
The younger Winchester finally got out of the hospital bed. Gabriel healed his injuries before the demon showed up and thankfully, the archangel had also replaced Sam's hospital gown with his usual clothes. The younger Winchester wasn't sure if anything short of a bomb threat could've made him leave the bed in that stupid gown. Hospital wear always tended to be too short for him.
"Do you sense it too?" Gabriel asked his brothers. The male demon Castiel and Balthazar brought into the room with them had the same strange aura around him the female did. The archangel had already made up his mind about what it most likely meant, but it would be good to hear a second opinion. Judged by the face Balthazar pulled, the conclusion the seraph drew couldn't be far from Gabriel's.
"Oh, isn't that just grand? If our almighty father could create a stone so big he can't lift it himself and if that stone was a magnet for all things bad, you two would be that stone," Balthazar huffed, throwing his arms in the air showily while glaring at the Winchesters.
"Being cut off from heaven really messed with his head, hasn't it?" Dean commented with a humorless chuckle. The older Winchester -once again- wasn't sure what the hell the angels were talking about, but Balthazar's statement was ridiculous no matter the context. Dean could admit that always being left out of the loop messed with his head, but at least his dark-haired angelic friend always was willing to share the story with him.
"Pestilence seems to be in the building," Castiel informed the Winchesters in a grave tone. They were in a very good position to take on the horseman, but Pestilence was a foe they should not underestimate.
"Let's talk about your boss, shall we?" Gabriel said to the female demon, giving his voice a sickeningly sweet note. The archangel generally wasn't one for yelling, he had other ways to intimidate people and show who the one in control was.
"You'll never stop us now," the demon spat, giving the angels and hunters a smile that could only be described as crazy. They could -and would- kill her, but the war wasn't over. Humanity and everyone on their side were fighting a lost battle, they just didn't know it yet.
"Honey, if I had a buck for every time I heard that..." Gabriel clicked his tongue, before he went on with faked sadness in his tone, "I'd make a bet with you, but I'm afraid you won't be around long enough to see the results."
The archangel looked toward the other demon and then nodded at Castiel. It couldn't hurt to show little miss arrogant why cooperating with them was a good idea. Castiel gave a curt nod of his own before he slammed his palm against the male demon's forehead, killing him.
"Now, you can tell us where we'll find Pestilence and I'll allow you to just go back to hell, otherwise..." Gabriel let his voice trail off. The threat was clear enough.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Pestilence asked, stepping away from the bed of the now dead patient. The horseman had to say that working in a hospital had its merits. There was a high fluctuation of people for one. With a few forged documents and a careful selection of patients for his experiments, nobody ever questioned where they went after being 'discharged'. The middle aged homeless man hadn't been able to believe his luck when the doctor selected him for special treatment in a private room, but of course he hadn't known that Pestilence wanted to see how quickly a mix of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV -with some added juice- could kill. The result was impressive, but Pestilence was sure he could do better next time.
"I don't understand what this is good for," the demon standing next to the horseman admitted with a shrug, "We already have..."
The demon wouldn't dream of complaining about his current assignment, but Pestilence was clearly wasting his time with the new diseases he was coming up with. They already had a plan for biological warfare that was close to its execution. Apparently, the horseman had a different opinion in the matter though.
"Demons, such simple minded creatures," Pestilence interrupted in an annoyed tone, "Of course, something simpler and easier to spread is necessary to get a grip on the human infestation this world suffers from, but there is much more beauty in the special cases."
Of course a dose of the Croatoan virus was much better suited for decimating the human population, but where was the fun in only working on one disease when there were so many deadly illnesses out there? He was excited to show off what he'd done with small pox. Pestilence still hoped to convince Lucifer to let him have a portion of the inevitable -short term- survivors for further experiments.
"As long as the vaccine gets on the market as planned, we all win," the demon shrugged lightly. There was no use getting into an argument with the horseman when everything was essentially already said and done. Their 'vaccine' would be shipped out and people all over the world would willingly let their doctors inject them with it. The demon had to admit that a health scare always worked miracles in getting people to switch off their brains and just react in panic.
"I don't know, darling, it looks to me like you're definitely on the losing team right now," Balthazar stated casually, just after Dean all but kicked in the door. Apparently, the older Winchester couldn't wait to reaffirm his masculinity by taking charge of a situation he had no business taking charge of. Even Castiel seemed to think that Dean shouldn't be on the front line when it came to facing Pestilence, because the seraph made sure to shield the older Winchester as much as he could.
The demon immediately tried to smoke out of its host body, but Balthazar was faster and killed him before he could escape. The blonde seraph wasn't going to open himself to accusations of making empty threats by letting the demon get away. He'd gladly let somebody else take care of Pestilence, since the man was simply disgusting. Granted, the horseman's current form looked like a respectable scientist in his best years, but Balthazar still saw the disgusting disease dripping thing behind the facade.
Pestilence sneered at the intruders, lashing out with his powers in the hope of throwing them off long enough to escape. The two hunters nearly immediately went down and two of the angels were at least slightly affected, but the third one only gritted his teeth in anger and charged.
"Big mistake," Gabriel hissed, taking a firm hold of Pestilence's arms. Not that they would have let the horseman go in any case, but hurting Sam and Dean was the stupidest thing he could have done. Gabriel would not stand for seeing those two hurt, especially after he had already seen Sam injured in a hospital bed less than an hour earlier.
Castiel quickly manifested his angel blade and cut through three of Pestilence's fingers with it. The horseman's ring fell to the floor as both Winchesters took deep, shuddering breaths and then struggled to get back to their feet.
Gabriel still had a hold on Pestilence's body, but let the horseman go, opting to make sure Sam was completely fine instead. Balthazar was just about to make a snarky comment when Pestilence's head snapped up one final time and the horseman coughed up a big glob of mucus, hitting the blonde seraph square in the chest.
"That's... eww... that's just nasty..." Balthazar whined, pulling a revolted face and shaking his hands in disgust. It didn't help that Dean clearly -poorly- fought laughter that was trying to break free. Granted, the disgusting, but harmless mucus wasn't the worst parting gift someone like Pestilence could have left them with, but the fact that most of it was dripping from Balthazar's shirt while some had even found its way on the naked skin not covered by his v-neck made it a catastrophe anyway.
Castiel frowned deeply, watching his brother's antics. They were lucky their attack on Pestilence went as well as it did, but apparently Balthazar didn't see it that way. However, the blue-eyed seraph realized they had only gotten rid of one part of the problem. The female demon had made it clear there was something more going on and the male demon's words suggested as much too. At least they knew they had to look for information on a vaccine. "We need to find..."
"No, Cassy, not we," Balthazar snapped, glaring at his brother, even if he probably didn't deserve it, "You need to find... whatever. I need to burn my clothes and take multiple showers."
The blonde seraph was gone in a flutter of wings before anybody could say anything.
"Diva," Gabriel chuckled, shaking his head.
The archangel kept a hand in contact with Sam's back as they went to search for documents that might tell them where they had to start looking for the vaccine. It was obvious that Pestilence hadn't kept documents of any kind in the patient's room, so they quickly made their way into the doctor's office to look around there.
Dean was close to commenting on how the search would go faster, if Gabriel could stop with the PDA for a fucking second, when his eyes fell on a sheet of paper with a pharmaceutical logo on it. The older Winchester couldn't help the flash back on his trip to the future and the Croatoan outbreak going on there. Dean was sure Pestilence's end game had something to do with that. They had to keep that possible future from happening at any cost.
"Here," Dean pointed out, holding the document under a lamp so they could take a closer look, "It's about a shipment of swine flu vaccines."
"You think...?" Sam asked, letting his voice trail off because it was pretty obvious what this might be about. The numbers suggested that the shipment was huge. The younger Winchester vaguely remembered hearing of the pharmaceutical company before. The plan was as ingenious as it was horrible. Shooting people up with a virus when they went to get protection against another.
"They wouldn't write 'Pestilence's guaranteed death serum' on it, would they?" Dean retorted, giving his younger brother a challenging look.
"We'll take care of this," Gabriel decided, inclining his head toward Castiel, "You two get out of town."
Realistically, between the archangel and seraph it would only take minutes to wipe out all demons and level the storage facility those vaccines were at. They had an address and name to go by, everything else was only a matter of -very little- time. Everything they heard from the demons before suggested that they felt very secure in their plan, so they wouldn't expect an attack. Besides, Lucifer, Michael and Raphael -who still were the three beings in existence Gabriel had to be most careful about facing- were very unlikely to hang around some warehouse full of disease ridden vaccines on the off chance that they would swing by to destroy it.
"What about the vampire hunt we came for?" Dean asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Fine, they weren't talking about the fate of the world here, but there were still people's lives at stake.
"Somebody's bound to check in with Pestilence or his minions sometime soon and they won't take long to notice we just killed them all," Gabriel replied, raising an eyebrow at the older Winchester, "So, Dean-o what do you think about getting out of town again?"
"We can call Bobby to send another hunter," Sam suggested reasonably. Like Dean, the younger Winchester wasn't eager to leave vampires roaming around the city, but he also saw the logic in Gabriel's words. They didn't want to be in town when Lucifer came by to see what happened to his horseman.
"Fine, whatever," Dean huffed. The older Winchester had to admit the archangel had a point, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Sometimes Dean just missed the days when he had been the one calling the shots.