A/N: I neglected to thank Vegas Granny and Clowns or Midgets for their help with a couple of the previous chapters. Their insight and suggestions helped me make the chapters better. NC

Chapter 12

John had found a possible hunt in Kansas and went to check it out while Ash worked on creating a program to track demon activity. It took him four days to complete the hunt and headed back to the Roadhouse to meet with Ash. He was tired, bruised up and had sprained his wrist on the hunt. He drove straight through, only stopping at a gas station to catch a short nap, before continuing. Since it was late when he got there, he made himself comfortable in the truck to sleep until someone was awake inside.

Rapping on his window, made John jump and fumble for his gun until he saw Ellen looking in the side window at him. He swiped a hand down his face as he opened the door.

"Coffee's hot, why don't you come on in?" she told him.

"Yeah…Thanks…" John mumbled as he twisted around and got out of his truck. He straightened his tall frame and heard cracking and popping in his back and winced. He was getting old and didn't know how many years he had left in him to do this kind of thing.

"How did it go?" she asked walking with him back to the front door of the bar. She saw he was moving slowly and favoring his wrist when he opened the door for her.

"Nothing major, vengeful spirit," John shrugged. He didn't mention his minor injuries thinking they were not important. He sat at the bar while Ellen continued around it and poured two cups of coffee, pushing one toward John.

"Ash finished up with your project last night. He'll be up soon, and he can show it to you. Never seen him so excited when he finished it. I think you made his month, hell maybe his year."

"Yeah, it'll be great if it works," he said. He sipped on his coffee letting him mind wake up to start a new day.

"Why don't you join me in the kitchen, and I'll fix some breakfast for us?" Ellen suggested. "Jo's sleeping in today and I'll get Ash up if he doesn't stumble in shortly. That boy seems to sense when food is being cooked."

"I don't want to be any trouble."

"I've got to fix my own, won't be any trouble cracking a couple more eggs," Ellen told him. "Don't be a stubborn ass."

They got up and moved to the kitchen so she could work on fixing breakfast. Ellen could feel the tension and stress coming off John and knew he wanted to go banging on Ash's door, but was being respectful of her, she was sure of that. She was making toast, grits and scrambled eggs for their meal, but before cooking the eggs, Ellen headed down the hall and banged on Ash's door calling for him to get up that John was back. Once she heard movement in the room, she headed back to the kitchen to cook the eggs, so they'd be hot.

Ash made his way to the kitchen, still putting on his shirt and plopped down beside John. "Man, I gotta tell ya, that was some badass crap you gave me. I mean damn! What you did there, dude…"

"Did you figure it out?" John asked quickly, not caring about the praise.

"I now have a program running that will track the country for demon signs. If you'll give me your laptop, I'll load a link so when something pops up, you'll get it. Oh, and I can set your cell up to alert you of incoming emails so you will know when you get new intel."

"Thanks Ash, I owe you a case of PBR for this," John told him slapping him on the back.

"Eat up boys while its hot," Ellen told them sitting plates in front of the two men. She sat down with them and studied John as he quickly scarfed down the food. She knew that look in his eyes and wondered if this was going to lead him to what he had been searching for for nearly twenty years. She learned his story from her late husband and felt sorry for him. That was a huge burden to be carrying around for so long. "Guess you'll be leaving when Ash does his magic?"

"Yeah, there's some things I need to do," John replied vaguely. "Thank you for this, it's more than I deserved."

"You just be careful out there John, you know how dangerous demons can be."

John stopped eating for a moment and looked up into her face. "They don't know how dangerous I can be. I'm trying to protect my family and there's not anything I won't do."

"What aren't you telling me John? Are the boys okay?" Ellen questioned. She thought it strange he hadn't mentioned either son since he had been there.

"I should get packed and have Ash work on my laptop," John stated getting up without answering her question. He headed to the spare room to get his things and out to the truck for his laptop. John could feel the surge of excitement course through him. He was one step closer to achieving his revenge for Mary and protecting his sons. He just hoped he was in time to stop anything bad happening to his boys.

spn

The rundown abandoned cabin was the perfect place to bring the demon he had captured. It was isolated and there wasn't anyone else around for miles. The devil's trap was drawn in the middle of the floor and a chair with a middle- aged man tied to it was staring at John with black eyes. John had soaked the ropes in holy water and coated them with salt to be sure he couldn't escape.

"What do you know about the yellow eyed demon?" John asked again. He picked up a cup of holy water and splashed it in the demon's face making his skin sizzle and burn. It was not really hurting the meatsuit, but the demon was feeling the effects of it.

"No idea who you're talking about," he spat at him as his hissed and growled madly, straining at the ropes.

"You must know something the way your kind gossips. What are his plans?"

"I don't know," the demon insisted.

John picked up the container of salt and roughly grabbed the man's nose, pinching it shut as he pushed his head back. He poured the salt into his mouth and then followed it with holy water. The demon screamed in agony and coughed up bloody foam. John paced around him getting agitated and trying to decide if he should move on since he wasn't getting anywhere with this one.

"You mean you don't have any knowledge of this demon or where he might be?" he asked again.

The demon coughed hard and shuttered as he tried to keep his composure and not act scared, when he was scared shitless. "I've been up here for a long time. I don't hear much of what goes on downstairs. They wouldn't be telling me anything, I'm squat to them," he admitted.

"So, you have no information for me," John said. "Guess you're of no use to me then." He began to recite the exorcism and watched as the demon struggled in his bonds and cried out. When the last words were said, black smoke poured from his mouth and swirled around before drifting to the floor and disappearing with fiery sparks. John went to the man and felt for a pulse but didn't find one. He pulled his shirt open to find a stab wound to the chest and knew he had been dead for a while. He untied the man and hefted him over his shoulder to take outside and bury him. When demons possessed a meat suit, they rode it hard and most of the time destroyed the soul of the owner along the way and killed them.

John was filling in the grave when his cell beeped, he had an email alert and quickly finished his task. There was no internet service this far out so he would have to drive into the nearest town to see if there were more demon signs elsewhere. This had been the third demon he had found over the past month, but none could tell him anything about the yellow eyed demon. Maybe this time he will have better luck, John thought. He grabbed his jacket and headed to the truck to leave. If this didn't pan out, there was one other thing he could try, he'd find a crossroads and summon a crossroads demon. Maybe they were higher up on the food chain than the other ones he had interrogated.

He drove to the nearest gas station on the outskirts of town and checked his email seeing it was from Bobby asking if he had seen Dean. He sent an answer back and shut it down. He didn't want Dean involved in this and wasn't about to contact him yet.

spn

The crossroads was in the middle of nowhere in an unpopulated section of Missouri. John pulled the truck to the side of the road and got out to survey the area. He knew he had to be smart about this if he was going to trap the crossroads demon. He got out the cans of luminous spray paint that couldn't be seen with the naked eye, especially in the early morning light. He paced off the crossroads determining how big he should make the trap before walking the area and removing any larger rocks and debris. Once he was satisfied, he put on some special glasses and started painting out the devil's trap. He decided to make one ten feet in diameter hoping that would be big enough to trap it. It took him fifteen minutes of careful spraying to get his traps into place and make ready to summon the demon. John took a metal box and put graveyard dirt, a picture id, and several other items before moving to the center of the crossroads and digging a small hole to bury the box.

John stood back up and waited, looking slowly around for the arrival of the demon.

"Well aren't you just the sexiest hunk of tall, dark and handsome," a female voice drawled out from behind him.

He turned slowly to see an attractive, dark haired woman staring at him with hungry eyes. John hadn't planned on it being a woman and at first was taken aback by it.

"And what pray tell does John Winchester want with a crossroads demon?" she asked as her eyes flashed red before returning to their normal color. "Do you want to make a deal?"

"I want some information," John said boldly. He had holy water ready to use, hoping to weaken her long enough to get the rope around her.

"Why would I give you that?" she asked.

John took a step backwards from the devil's trap she had stepped into and shrugged before answering.

"So, you won't be standing here for however long this paint will hold up and trap you."

The demon frowned and looked at the ground not seeing anything. She stepped toward John, but only made it three steps before a barrier stopped her. She screamed in rage as she tried to get out of the trap.

"Won't do any good trying to fight your way out."

"I heard rumors you were hunting my kind, but they didn't know why. Maybe we can make a deal?" she suggested as she got her anger under control.

"Where is the yellowed eyed demon?" John asked as he walked slowly around the circle. "I figure a crossroads demon might be a little higher in the pecking order than the others I've questioned."

"You mean Azazel?" she asked as she tried to follow him. "He's the only yellowed eyed one of us that was active recently."

"What do you mean was active?" John questioned quickly when he heard her slip.

"How about we make a deal? You free me from this trap and I tell you what you want to know?" she asked. "I won't even ask for your soul, this time," she cooed. "But you only get one free pass."

"You'll tell me what I want to know and then I'll think about freeing you, but it depends on how good the information is."

"Why not, I've got nothing to lose. You can exorcise me, but it'll only be a matter of time before I'm topside again making deals."

John mulled the idea over in his mind trying to decide whether he could trust her or not. He knew demons lied and would tell you anything to get what they wanted.

"How can I trust you?"

"Oh sweetie, when we make a deal, we have to keep it. Poor management on our part if we don't. Who's going to sell their soul if we don't hold up our end of the bargain?"

"You'll tell me about this Azazel if I free you?"

"Yes, deals a deal."

"Alright, deal," John stated facing her and waiting for her to talk.

"It takes more than words to seal our deal honey," she said in a sultry voice.

"What do you want?"

"We've got to kiss to make it binding."

John looked at the woman as his insides twisted, but he needed this intel. He stepped to her and jerked her to him and kissed her full on the lips. She languished in the moment, slipping her hands around his neck until he pushed her away.

"Now that wasn't so bad was it?" she gloated when she saw the look of disgust on his face.

"Talk," John growled at her. He took a sip of holy water and rinsed his mouth, being careful not to spit on the circle.

"Azazel is dead," she said walking as far away from John as she could in the circle.

"What do you mean dead?" John yelled in shock. "I thought he was a high-level demon and couldn't be killed." He couldn't believe that this had been taken away from him after all these years of searching for the demon.

"Guess you were wrong. Words been going around in hell and has filtered topside that an unknown force took him on and won. The Boy King is what they're calling him. You know he could have stay to rule Hell if he wanted? I don't think anyone's seen someone this powerful since Lucifer."

"How do you know this is true and not some rumor?"

"Because my boss, the King of Crossroads, is now the King of Hell. Seems the Boy King didn't want the job and didn't care who took it."

John turned from the demon so she wouldn't see the fear and concern in his eyes. If this being could kill a demon that powerful, he couldn't imagine the destruction it could cause if it was freed on the world. It also puzzled him why it wouldn't take Azazel's place in ruling Hell. That in itself must come with some powerful mojo he was sure any demon wouldn't pass up.

"Where is this Boy King now?"

"No idea, no one does except maybe Crowley."

"Who?"

"Crowley, new King of Hell, my old boss," she huffed at him in irritation.

John had heard enough. He needed to find a place to stay for a few days and sort all of this out. His mind was reeling with this news and he wasn't sure what to think, how to feel, what to do now. He turned to leave when the demon called to him.

"Hey, we had a deal," she said. "I gave you what you wanted."

John looked back at her for a moment before taking his foot and scuffing the paint in the circle so she could get out. He watched the red smoke rush from her mouth and the woman collapse to the ground. After a moment, the woman started moaning and moving around. He knew he couldn't leave her out here alone, she was innocent in all this and wouldn't remember any of it.

"Miss, are you okay?" John asked going to her side.

"Where am I? How'd I get here?"

"I don't know, I was taking a short cut and saw you laying in the road. I'll take you to the nearest town and get you some help," John offered. He helped her to the truck and headed toward a town twenty miles away. He didn't try to talk to her as she stared glassy eyed out the windshield.

Once she was dropped off at a hospital, John would decide his next move. Would it be tracking this new threat and taking it out? With Azazel dead, his mission for revenge was over, but he couldn't give up the hunt. It was in his blood now and he still had to be sure his sons were going to be safe.

A/N: This is the last chapter of John by himself. How will he react when he finds out who the Boy King is? Thank you for coming alone on this journey. I do like reviews. NC