Chapter 52: With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear

A/N: Thank you to angelgobad05, Nunquam Iterum, SekhmetDesign, ManigotacrappyAU, spunkynuts, Insert Name Here, SPN Mum, Dumbledore'sWisdom, ofmooseandmen, FreedomXJustice, and twolittlewords for their reviews!


"So, what you're saying is that we literally can do absolutely nothing until Kevin decodes the second trial."

Dean grimaced, running a hand through his hair. "We can hunt."

"That's not good enough, Dean," Sam said, a little more loudly than he meant to. They'd been holding off on having this conversation for days, and now that it was happening, he could see why they'd both been subconsciously avoiding it.

"It's gonna have to be, Sam. I don't know what you want me to say."

"Kevin said he's getting very close to translating the remainder of the tablet. It isn't likely that we'll have to wait long to begin the second trial," Cas said from where he sat on the table in the library, at Dean's side as usual.

Sam was seated next to Crowley. Bobby was currently on a trip to Rufus's cabin to gather up his possessions that were still there - the hunter had nothing to his name at the bunker, since the things he'd bought after his revival were all abandoned in Riyadh, and Crowley had already called the hotel and been informed that their suite had been destroyed and all of their things were gone, which was no doubt Abaddon's doing. They would have to recount this conversation to Bobby once he returned.

"We're not exactly coming off of a great streak here, Kitten," Crowley said. "It would be nice to put something in the win column. At the moment, Moose and I are feeling positively inadequate."

Sam agreed with that; they'd wasted two months while the world went rolling downhill. It was anything but a good feeling.

"We're playing the waiting game," Dean said with an air of finality. "That's all we can do for it. I want to get out of here and fight those sons of bitches as bad as you do, Sammy, but we don't have any aces up our sleeves anymore. The only thing we can do to take down Xaphan and Queen Bitch is the trials. It sucks, but that's it."

"Theoretically, we could call Anthriel and ask if she requires us to do anything more for the angels in the interim," Cas pointed out. "But the possibility that Anthriel would send us on another suicide run is very likely."

"That's better than sitting around and doing nothing," Sam argued. "Plus, the angels need you. They're not going to risk your life. You're too valuable to them."

"And what exactly do you call Boston?" Dean asked tersely. "It's a miracle we both made it out of there alive."

"'Miracle' - is that we're calling it when I do something nice, nowadays?" Crowley asked dryly.

Before anyone could respond, Kevin abruptly entered the library, looking shaken down to the very core of his being. The four of them looked up expectantly. The prophet was clutching one of his numerous spiral notebooks to his chest. Whatever he was about to tell them, it certainly didn't look like it was going to be good news.

"What's up, Kev?" Dean asked, considering the frightened teen.

"I need you to look at this," Kevin said.

"Kay." Dean reached out a hand for the notebook, but the prophet surprised all of them by slamming it down in front of Crowley instead of handing it to Dean.

"Presents, Kevin? You shouldn't have," Crowley drawled, picking up the notebook.

"Can you read cuneiform?" Kevin demanded, refusing to meet the demon king's eyes.

"Of course. I can read all of the dead languages. One of my many talents," Crowley answered, peering down at the neatly etched symbols on the lined paper. Sam knew that Kevin often transliterated the tablet to cuneiform before trying to decipher it further, as he could work much longer with his notes than with the tablet itself, due to the massive migraines he received from reading the source material.

"What is this about?" Sam asked Kevin slowly, brow furrowed. Kevin looked legitimately freaked out.

"I need to make sure I understand exactly what the tablet says," Kevin said. "I... I really hope that I've got it wrong."

"What do you think it says?" Castiel asked warily.

Kevin opened up his mouth to speak, but words seemed to fail him and he instead closed his mouth with an audible click. He shook his head, focusing on Crowley's face, waiting for some kind of reaction from the demon.

When Crowley began reading, his expression had been one of nonplussed curiosity. As he continued, however, his lips thinned and his eyes widened significantly.

"This isn't possible," he murmured, biting down on his thumb nail as his eyes scanned over the ancient symbols. "It can't be."

"What?" Sam asked anxiously. "What is it?"

"Holy mother of sin," Crowley swore, dropping the notebook as if it had burned him. It landed on the surfaced of the table with a loud smack.

"I was right," Kevin said, a quaver in his voice as horror dawned on his features. "Oh God, I was right."

"We're well and truly doomed now," Crowley thought, the sentiment slipping through their bond unintentionally, allowing Sam to hear it. It was not a good sign that Crowley was so panicked that he wasn't able to fully maintain his walls.

"Will someone please share with the friggin' class and tell the rest of us what the hell is going on?" Dean snapped, looking between Crowley and Kevin.

"Destroy it. Got to destroy it," Crowley thought frantically, and he picked the notebook back up.

"Wait-" Sam reached out, anticipating what Crowley was about to do when he felt the familiar surge of energy through their connection. Before Sam could stop him, however, the notebook burst into bright orange-red flames. The searing hot fire burned it into ashes in seconds, black dust falling through Crowley's fingers. "What the hell, Crowley?" Sam demanded.

He felt something akin to terror coursing out of Crowley and in turn making his own heart beat faster in his chest as the King's anxiety took its toll on him. If this was unsettling Crowley like this, he didn't even want to imagine what the tablet might have said.

"No one can ever see that," Crowley explained in a low tone, almost urgently. "If that fell into the wrong hands, it would mean the end of everything for everyone, all planes of existence. As in, finissimo, thank you, take your dinner mints and go – the end."

"Just tell us what the damn thing says!" Dean burst out angrily, quickly losing his patience with the demon.

Kevin took a deep breath. "The tablet says that-" Kevin began, but with a gesture of Crowley's hand, the prophet's tongue plastered itself to the roof of his mouth, preventing him from speaking.

"Alright Crowley, that tears it. Tell us what's going on right now or I swear I will get a holy water spray bottle and go all 'bad kitty' on you."

"The truth, now," Cas tacked on.

"Don't you see?" Crowley asked, frustrated. "This is bigger than anything any of us has ever seen." He nodded down at the pile of ashes. "A million times bigger. No one can know what that tablet says. If he tells you three, then you can be tortured for the information, and no matter how strong you are, you're all still human, and humans can be broken."

"So, we're just supposed to take your word for it?" Cas asked, the condescension blatant in his words.

"What do I have to do to get you to bloody trust me!?" Crowley seemed to have to stop himself from screaming at the ex-angel. "I don't give a damn if you take my word for it or not," Crowley said after a deep breath. "It's the truth either way. There are some things best left in the dark – forever. Even Kevin and I knowing puts all of our worlds in more danger than you can imagine."

"Come on, Crowley, you've got to be able to tell us something," Sam said, trying to soothe the tense atmosphere in the room.

"I told you everything you need to know – if Xaphan or Abaddon got their hands on the notebook he just handed me, every world would end. We can't risk that information falling into anyone's hands." Crowley flicked his eyes to Kevin, who was glowering angrily at the demon, indignant at being forcibly silenced. "I'm going to allow you to speak now. If you try to say anything about what's on the tablet, I'll cut your tongue out. Do you understand me?"

Kevin gave Crowley the finger.

"A nod would've sufficed," Crowley said blandly. He snapped, and Kevin sucked in a deep breath.

"They deserve to know," the prophet said as soon as he was able.

"It doesn't matter what they deserve," Crowley replied. "This is just too big." The demon rose. "I need to speak with Laharl. Get an update on Xaphan and Abaddon's movements, see what their next target is. Maybe we can do something..." Crowley pursed his lips, and Sam felt worry pulsing from him. "Toodles." The King disappeared.

Dean immediately rose from his chair. "Well? What the hell does it say?"

Kevin gulped. "Look, the last thing in the world I want to do is agree with anything he says, but... he might be right. This might be too dangerous for you guys to know. I shouldn't have even let him see the notes; I just needed to know if I actually understood what the tablet was saying."

"Did you read ahead, or something?" Sam asked. "Does it have anything to do with the second trial?"

"This was kind of like an... an author's note," Kevin said. "Another one from Metatron. Just randomly thrown in after the second trial. I thought if I decoded it, I could use it as a kind of reference for translating the rest of the second trial. You know, kind of like a cryptogram," he explained. "I think Metatron put it in without God knowing, because I don't see why God would want something like that in the tablet."

"Metatron might've put that in to confuse anyone who was pursuing the trials. What you read might not even be true," Cas pointed out. Kevin just shook his head.

"I hope so, 'cause otherwise..." the teen trailed off, and the tone of his voice made Sam concerned. Very concerned.

It was the usual game: they asked if things could get any worse, and just as always, the answer was yes.


Crowley returned from his meeting with Laharl in about as high a mood as he usually was in after he spoke with his only remaining loyalist. Things were the same as ever. Xaphan and Abaddon were painting the town red, thousands were dying on both sides, and the humans were screaming about the apocalypse and stocking up their basements with enough tomato soup to drown in.

He had the distinct feeling that things were going to get much worse before they had any hope of getting better. That always seemed to be how it went.

Crowley sighed, kicking off his shoes and making his way to the couch. He sank down, covering his eyes with his arm and taking a deep breath. This waiting was going to drive him insane. There was nothing to be done until Kevin cracked the remainder of the angel tablet, or at least the part containing the information on the second trial - then again, he couldn't claim to be particularly excited for any further discoveries on the ancient rock, as the last one had been so bone-chillingly terrifying.

He could never let anyone know. Even the rest of Team Free Will... even Sam, who he made an effort not to keep secrets from if he could avoid it. But in some (many) cases, secrets were needed. Secrets were safety, and right now, the only glue that held the universe together was the fact that only he and Kevin knew what was on that tablet. It was a true recipe for disaster... the recipe for the end of not just the Earth, but Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as well.

The end of all things, and it was held in his hand. Knowing his luck, he shouldn't have been surprised.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by a voice on the other side of the room. "I thought demons didn't need to sleep." Ah. Kevin. The brat had come out of his room, for once.

"I'm not sleeping," he responded, not moving his arm. "I'm resting. I assume you need something?" Kevin never spoke to him if he could avoid it, for obvious reasons.

"Yeah. Something else on the tablet... I don't think I understand it completely," he said. "I need you to come take a look at it."

"You're forgetting a very important word..."

"Fuck you, Crowley."

"That's three words, and I was looking for a please, but I suppose that's reaching." With a sigh, he swung his legs over the side of the couch and stood, stretching. "What is it that you don't understand? You're a sharp little tack; surely you don't need me to do your work for you."

"It's hard to explain. It'll be easier if I just show you," the prophet said in clipped tones. Without looking to see if he was following him, Kevin turned on his heel and strolled out of the lounge and into the foyer. With a roll of his eyes, Crowley tailed him.

"Home," he chimed to Sam as he walked in Kevin's footsteps. "Where are you?"

"I'm out for a run. Want to come along? You can tell me what Laharl said."

"Rain check," Crowley responded dismally. "Nothing that we're not used to has gone on in the past few days, anyway. Plus, apparently the cutest little prophet needs my help with the God stone."

"Kevin asked you for help?"

"I'm just as shocked as you. Here's hoping he doesn't murder me when I have my back turned." Depressing as it was, he was only half-joking.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but... be careful."

"Careful is my middle name, Moose."

Things had been a little uneasy between he and Sam since the day before. He'd seen the look in Sam's eyes when he'd been teasing him. At first he thought he'd just made the Moose uncomfortable - which was something he rather enjoyed doing, just because it was fun to watch him squirm - but after further consideration, he realized that it hadn't been discomfort. No, that had been interest. A very particular kind of interest; a kind he thought he would never see from Sam.

Once he started acting uneasy around Crowley and doing more to keep his walls up, his theory was confirmed. Sam had a bit of a gay moment. And, well... that was curious. Very curious. Now the current question was whether to push further and see what reaction he could elicit out of the hunter, or to just allow things to sit and smolder. Really, with the current series of disasters they were dealing with, it was probably best to step back from any plan of slowly seducing Sam off of the road of heterosexuality. Now just wasn't the time for that. Not to mention... he was used to 'relationships' meaning very little and being only a means of release.

He and Sam almost shared a brain. With the two of them, whether they liked it or not... well, it would mean something. And he wasn't sure how he could possibly deal with something like that.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Problems for later.

Kevin opened his door and entered his room, and Crowley went in behind him. The lights were off. Before he could ask why the prophet's bedroom was pitch dark, the door slammed shut in his wake and he was shoved forward. The lamps flickered to life, and Crowley found himself in the center of a devil's trap. A fairly well-drawn one, as well. Three cheers for Kevin's artistic ability.

"Hmm," was all Crowley said as the teen glowered at him. "Well, I can't say this is unexpected. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised that you waited this long."

"You have no idea what I'm going to do."

"You're going to kill me," Crowley told him, as if he were making some kind of vague comment about the weather. "I tore down your entire world. It was only a matter of time before you decided that living under the same roof as me wasn't something you could allow."

He didn't call for Sam to come stop Kevin from whatever he was about to do; he probably should've, because he saw now that Kevin had an angel blade in his hand. God only knew where he'd found that. He'd probably stolen Dean's, somehow.

"Believe it or not, it's not even that," Kevin said in a low voice. "I mean, I've wanted to kill you since the day you walked in here. Because... you're evil." Don't I know it. "Because you took everything away from me, and you're a demon. But I didn't. I didn't, because the Winchesters needed you. First to keep Sam alive, and then to do the trials. And I was going to let you live until you stopped being useful." He turned the blade in his hand, swallowing. "But I can't wait. Not now. Not when you know what's on the tablet."

"Using my own logic against me," Crowley said. "No one can know the little prophecy you discovered. No one can know about the fourth tablet." Crowley frowned. "Leviathan, Angel, Demon... and Man. Should've seen that coming, really. Not the biggest plot twist, but certainly a troubling one, given what's on it."

"If the wrong person gets ahold of that tablet, and finds a way to translate it - probably by killing me and using one of the other prophets - it's over."

"Oh, I know."

"I think you're the wrong person, Crowley," Kevin said, saying his name for the first time in a very, very long time. "I think as soon as you get what you want, you're going to turn on us. And with what you know-"

"I'm going to have to cut you off there," Crowley said. "You're not stupid, Kevin. You know that all I ever wanted was to keep Hell in check, and keep it to myself. As long as I have Hell, I'm happy. What would the Man tablet do for me, hmm? Not a bloody thing. Why tear it all down? Why give up my kingdom?"

"Because you're an evil, power hungry bastard and if you sent everything spiraling into chaos you could take control," the prophet answered, not missing a beat. "You could take it all over."

"The Angel Tablet says that the spell on the Man Tablet will break down the barriers between Heaven, Hell, Earth, and Purgatory. That means the universe basically collapsing in on itself, the humans getting put on the bottom of the food chain, and a complete war that would most likely end with every living thing getting burned to a crisp along with everything else that's ever existed ever. It would be cataclysmic. It would be... words cannot describe what it would be like. You may not think very highly of me, but I like the world. I like humanity - just look at how good they are at damning themselves - and I have no interest in seeing that all destroyed. None at all."

"You expect me to believe that? To believe that you're just gonna sit on information like this and not do anything with it?" Kevin demanded, taking a step forward, but not close enough to cross the outer line of the devil's trap.

"Be smart, Kevin. You were going to go to Princeton once, weren't you?" Crowley tilted his head. "People don't do things that are directly counterintuitive to what they want. Not even 'evil villains' like yours truly."

Wasn't it said that villains never saw themselves as villains? What exactly did that make him, then?

"You'll still stab us all in the back," Kevin said angrily. "Even if you keep this quiet, you're still going to turn on us. You'll be after me again, after the Winchesters. You've somehow managed to convince the others that you're different, that you've changed, but I see straight through you. You're a monster."

"Do you think I'm going to argue with you?" Crowley asked in a monotone. "I'm not. I'm a monster, I'm evil, I've sinned enough to damn myself for the rest of... well, forever. I've got so much blood on my hands that I can't even see the skin anymore. I haven't changed..." He looked away from the prophet. "But I am trying. Whatever you think of me, it doesn't change the fact that I am trying to be better than what I was before. I have humanity in me, Kevin. I don't like it and you don't think it's there, but it is there."

"Shut up." Kevin lifted the blade. "Just shut the hell up. Your head games aren't going to work on me. Not anymore."

"There aren't any head games left to play. I don't think you're going to kill me. Actually, I know you're not."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"Oh, but I do. Because I hunted you, and I've never made the mistake of not knowing what I'm hunting. And you, Kevin Tran, are not a man who would kill someone with humanity inside of them," Crowley said, finally meeting Kevin's eyes, which were dark with rage. Suddenly, Kevin crossed into the devil's trap and put the angel blade to Crowley's throat. His breathing was hard, and his nostrils were flared.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of," Kevin growled. "None."

"Don't do this," Crowley said softly. "And I'm not telling you that because I think you shouldn't kill me - because really, in your position, I would - but don't do this because you shouldn't cross this line. I'm not worth it, not worth the taint on your soul. You're good, Kevin. You're a good man, and though I may not be better than this, you are."

"Are you okay? You're anxious." Sam in his head. Well, at least if he was going to die, he would hear the hunter's voice before the lights went out.

"I'm fine. Brilliant. Nothing I can't handle."

"Crowley-"

He threw up his walls, blocking Sam out as seconds ticked by with the angel blade still pressed to his jugular. He could see the struggle on Kevin's face. He knew that everything inside of the prophet was raging to kill him, but it would be the prophet's heart that would be his undoing; Kevin didn't have it in him to murder him. Once upon a time, Crowley would've interpreted that as weakness. He knew that not to be true, now.

Finally, after Crowley began to wonder if he'd misjudged the prophet and he really was about to die, Kevin stepped away, dropping his weapon to the ground with a clatter and a sharp sigh. "Damn it." The prophet's eyes were glistening with tears. "I hate you," he said, voice breaking. "I hate you, and I can't even kill you."

"I know," Crowley said softly, agreeing with both statements. "And that's what makes you strong."

Instead of responding, Kevin merely scraped the toe of his tennis shoe through the outer line of the devil's trap. Without another word, he pushed past Crowley and exited his own bedroom, leaving the door hanging open behind him. Crowley looked down at the devil's trap. The thing was, Kevin hadn't even needed to break it. He'd accidentally skewed one of the symbols inside of the pentacle. Even the smallest flaw could be exploited, and Crowley was never actually halted by the trap. He decided not to analyze why he'd stayed in his false prison.

Crowley sighed heavily. "Bollocks."