Blade Runners Part 2
"So, the First Blade was never on display?" Sam asked curiously.
"No authenticated item by that name was ever on these premises." Dr. McElroy answered.
"'Authenticated.' Dr. McElroy, this blade was stolen and smuggled into the U.S. in violation is treaties with several governments." Dean replied firmly. "We can compel you to speak."
Dr. McElroy's brows shot up. "Compel? And what might that involve?"
Dean was slightly taken aback by her implication. Sam and Angela just looked on.
"Alright, look." Dr. McElroy sighed heavily. "I did acquire the so-called First Blade. And carbon dating did peg it to biblical times, but the authentication proved unreliable."
"So it was in the vault," Angela replied.
"I removed it myself. The guards didn't know." Dr. McElroy admitted.
"And where it now?" Sam questioned.
"Several weeks ago, a confidential offer was made to purchase it. I was afraid we would never authenticate the thing, so—
"Who was the buyer?" Angela interrupted.
"Sorry." Dr. McElroy pursed her lips. "The buyer insisted on absolute secrecy."
"Well… federal statutes trump your little deal." Dean replied. "So… the buyer?"
"And you'll get it out of me one way or another, won't you, agent?" Dr. McElroy flirted.
Dean smirked at Dr. McElroy flirtatiously.
"Hmm. I never did know his real identity." Dr. McElroy continued. "He called himself 'Magnus.' Don't ask me where he lives. I have no idea. But I do have a meeting. So, here is my number, should you need anything else."
She held out her card and Sam went to take it. Dr. McElroy pulled it back and handed it over again, this time only for Dean. Dean took the card and Dr. McElroy sauntered away. Sam scoffed slightly and shook his head.
"What?" Dean's brows furrowed.
Sam chuckled softly. "Did you catch that? 'Magnus? 'Albert Magnus'? The name the Men of Letters used when they want to be incognito?"
"Yeah, but we know that all of the Men of Letters are dead," Dean argued.
"Do we?" Angela quirked a brow.
~/~\~
Sam, Dean, and Angela walked into the bunker's dungeon. Angela carried Grace in her arms. Crowley sat at his table trussed up.
"Turndown service? I'd like a mint on my pillow." Crowley commented.
"What do you know about the Men of Letters massacre of 1958?" Sam questioned.
"We know Abaddon missed our grandfather and Larry Ganem," Dean added. "Was there anybody else?"
"Let me get this straight. You keep me locked up in this closet, ignore my suffering, and then come barging in here and demand my help?" Crowley scoffed.
"More or less, yeah." Angela nodded.
"Did I or did I not keep my end of the bargain the other night?" Crowley raised his brows. "Quite brilliantly, I might add. We are partners! And you owe me!"
"Owe you?" Sam asked incredulously.
"I wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you three." Crowley hissed. "You shoot me up. You make me a junkie. You keep me stashed away for months while my kingdom falls apart?!"
Angela rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"
~/~\~
Crowley sat in the bunker's library drinking a glass of scotch while Sam, Dean, and Angela rifled through boxes of files. Grace was playing on her activity mat, babbling to herself.
"It's not a very good scotch, is it?" Crowley hummed.
"Okay, Crowley, we have gone through the records for the entire membership in 1958," Sam replied. "Every single name matches the men who were killed."
Crowley was only half paying attention as he found a Bust Asian Beauties magazine and started looking through it.
"That would be the active membership, correct?" Crowley raised his brows.
Sam looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.
"Were you three dropped on your heads a great deal?" Crowley scoffed. "Like I told you, rumor has it that a rogue member was tossed out on his arse. Does that make him 'active'? Seriously, how did you ever function without me?" he added. "Well, hello, Miss Ichigatsu."
Angela picked up a file box and her brows furrowed. "Infamati et obliterate."
"Dishonored and forgotten." Crowley translated easily.
~/~\~
A few hours later, Sam, Dean, and Angela were sitting at the table, still pouring over the files. Angela had since put Grace down for a nap.
"Wow," Dean muttered as he handed a paper to Sam. "This guy was something."
"Tough name," Sam replied.
"Yeah, Cuthbert Sinclair. I'd have just gone with 'Magnus.'" Dean noted.
Angela leaned over and skimmed the paper. "Looks like he designed most of the warding that keeps the bunker safe."
"Says here he was named 'Master of Spells,' right after he was initiated." Dean read aloud.
"I guess his work got a little crazy," Sam replied. "The leadership called it 'eccentric' and 'irresponsible.'"
"Okay, so these are projects that he proposed the last two years he was here. Look at this—'rejected.' 'Rejected.' 'Rejected.'" Dean's brows furrowed.
"So difficult—brilliant, ahead of your time, despised for it. Trust me, I know." Crowley cut in.
"Formal separation from Men of Letters—April 1956." Dean read.
"He missed the massacre," Angela replied, her eyes widening slightly.
"I never knew his name, but I heard someone was out," Crowley muttered. "Did my damndest to find him. Thought he might be my way inside this joint."
"So, where'd you look?" Sam questioned.
~/~\~
The Winchesters and Crowley walked through a forest and into a nearby clearing. Sam held Grace in his arms as they walked.
"So, this is where your demons tracked him to?" Angela questioned.
"Exact spot," Crowley confirmed. "My boys never could find him. I'm sensing nothing, so if he's here, he's warded up to the gills."
"Well, he was a genius at it, right?" Sam replied. "Sure as hell ain't gonna be found by a bunch of demons."
"Oh, like he's gonna open his heart to you lot, because you're such prizes?" Crowley sassed.
"Better—we're legacies," Dean replied. "Alright, if he's so bent on hiding, maybe he's watching. Give it a shot."
"Cuthbert Sinclair—uh, Magnus—whatever," Sam spoke to the empty air. "We're Sam, Dean, and Angela Winchester."
"Men of Letters, ourselves," Dean added.
"We know what happened back in the day." Angela continued. "We don't necessarily agree with it. We figured… Maybe you want to tell your side of the story."
There was nothing and the three hunters turned back to look at Crowley, who just pointed behind them. A smoky door started to rise from the ground. Sam, Dean, and Angela exchanged a look and then walked through it. They were immediately in a hallway in a beautifully decorated mansion.
~/~\~
"Which way?" Sam asked as he looked around.
Dean motioned to the right and they walked down the hall. When they rounded the corner, they were attacked by two vampires. Sam held Grace protectively as Dean and Angela managed to fight them off. Then, over an intercom, they heard clapping and a voice.
"Bravo!" the man exclaimed proudly. "Well done."
~/~\~
Sam, Dean, and Angela sat on a couch while a man, Magnus, poured himself a drink. Grace looked around the room from her place on Sam's lap.
"Sorry about all the theatricality." Magnus apologized. "I just wanted to see what you were made of."
"So, what, are we underground?" Dean asked.
"No." Magnus shook his head. "No, my fortress is right where you were standing. But it's invisible."
"Then you must be Cuthbert Sinclair," Sam replied.
"Ugh. I haven't gone by the moniker in, oh… 57 years now." Magnus chuckled as he sat down across from the hunters.
"Well, you're looking good for a guy pushing… 90?" Angela replied.
"Well, thanks, darling." Magnus smiled. "There's a spell for damn near everything. I am impressed, though. You did exactly what you should've done. Though I am gonna miss those two from my zoo."
"Your zoo?" Sam's brows furrowed.
"Oh, you three are in the midst of the greatest collection of supernatural rarities and antiquities on the planet," Magnus explained. "I'm sorry. Did you say you were Men of Letters? I thought that whole thing died out after '58."
"Well, we are—we are legacies," Sam assured. "But actually, uh… We're hunters."
Magnus grinned. "Hunters? Wow! Hunters. With the key to the kingdom! The boys must be spinning in their graves." He laughed. "Damn snobs. Bunch of librarians, if you ask me. Although I was always fond of Henry. I was his mentor, you know? Yeah, till the squares gave me the boot. Yeah. 'Course, he came here to visit me, in secret. Called out to me, same as you did. Of yes. Quite the wild hair, your grandfather was."
"Listen, Magnus," Angela started. "Uh… We got ourselves a little situation. Abaddon, the last Knight of Hell, is looking to up her pay grade and take over the place."
"Things never change, do they? I kept telling the boys over and over again—I would say, 'we could stop all this. We could rid the world of monsters once and for all if we just put our minds to it', but, 'oh, no,' they said. 'No, no, no. It's not our place. We're here to study. We're here to catalog.'" Magnus explained.
"Yeah, yeah, no, we get it. They're, uh… geeks." Dean muttered.
"Mm." Magnus hummed.
"But she can be stopped," Angela stressed. "But we need something that we hear you have—the First Blade."
"Hmm. I see. Interesting." Magnus nodded. "But if you'd really done your homework, you would know that it's absolutely useless, unless, of course, you're possessing the Mark—
Angela pulled up her right sleeve to reveal the mark on her arm. "The Mark of Cain."
Magnus's eyes widened. "Oh, my. How did you come by that?"
"Listen, if Abaddon takes over, the one thing she wants more than anything is to make hell on Earth," Sam explained. "Not even you can escape that."
"And they say all hunters are morons." Magnus chuckled. "It's right there behind you."
Sam, Dean, and Angela turned in their seats to see the First Blade on display. The three hunters immediately stood up.
"Listen, if you're serious about taking action, this—this is taking action," Angela stressed. "You loan us that blade, and we will stop the bitch."
"Hmm. Let me think about it." Magnus turned around and pinched some green powder from a tray on the end table. "Alright, I've thought about it." He blew the powder at Sam, Dean, and Grace. "Abi, ab oculis meis!"
Suddenly, Sam, Dean, and Grace disappeared in a puff of smoke.
~/~\~
Sam and Dean rushed through the woods back to the Impala and Crowley.
"Magnus has Angie." Sam breathed out.
~/~\~
"What did you do with my family?!" Angela yelled at Magnus.
"Don't worry." He assured. "They're fine. But I did what any good collector would do—I separated the ordinary from the extraordinary. I had the First Blade. And now I have the Mark of Cain to complete the set."
"Yeah, well, problem is, it's attached." Angela glared. "So, how about you loan me the blade and I take care of business?"
"Angela, I am offering you the moon here—to be part of the greatest collection of all time, to be young forever," Magnus explained. "Let me teach you my secrets. Hmm? Be my companion. I have to be honest with you," he chuckled. "It has gotten lonely here over the years."
"When you were saying any of that, did it feel at all creepy?" Angela scoffed. "Yeah. I'm just gonna grab the blade and go."
"One little design flaw to the place—no windows, no doors," Magnus replied.
Angela quickly drew her machete. "Well, in that case… I'll just make my own."
"Shen ti rán shao!" Magnus chanted.
Suddenly, Angela's machete burned white hot and Angela dropped it as it burned her hand.
"Aah!" she yelped in pain.
"Eh? Tricky little spell, that first one, right? Chinese." Magnus smirked.
Angela went for her gun, but Magnus just held it up.
"Ah. Cheap magician's trick on that one—picked your pocket. Nice gun." Magnus commented. "Welcome to the collection, Angela."
~/~\~
Sam dug through the Impala's trunk to find anything to help them get back inside. Dean held Grace, who started whimpering.
"Mama." She cried.
"I know, sweetheart, I know." Dean murmured quietly, trying to comfort her.
Crowley took a step to take a small peek into the trunk. Sam just drew Ruby's knife on him.
"You mind?" Sam raised his brows.
"Who would have thunk it," Crowley started as he backed off. "You, me, and Squirrel, same team, in the trenches. When this is over we can get matching tattoos."
Sam took the file box from the trunk and went to sit in the passenger seat to look through it. "Just to be clear, Crowley, we are not on the same anything. By the way, since the place is warded, your powers are useless, which means you are useless, even more so than usual."
"You two are gonna need another set of hands when you get in there, unless you have other volunteers in mind." Crowley retorted.
"Thanks. Pass." Dean replied gruffly.
"If memory serves me, I'm the one who helped Angela find Cain so that we could find the blade, so that Angela could receive the mark." Crowley reminded. "I'm the one who flushed that lout Gadreel out of your noggin, Sam. So, lately, I've seen more playing time than either of you two."
"Crowley, will you please shut the hell up?" Sam asked, exasperated.
~/~\~
Magnus had Angela tied up to a post with chains around her ankles and upper arms.
"Oh, you're really a piece of work. You know that?" Angela scoffed. "Holed up in here, doing nothing. You bitch about the Men of Letters. You're way worse."
Magnus smirked as he held up the First Blade. "Should we fire it up? What do you say?"
"Go to hell." Angela snarled.
"Oh, come on, Angela. This is the object of your quest." Magnus reminded. "Tell me you aren't curious to see if it works. Give me your hand."
Angela refused to move, so Magnus grabbed her right hand and shoved the First Blade's handle into it.
"Give me your hand." He growled.
The Mark of Cain glowed a bright red and Angela instantly went rigid and her hand clutching the blade started to shake. Angela looked like she was fighting a strong power. She closed her eyes tightly with the effort but then opened them again as she got a faraway look in her eyes. The veins on her arm, next to the mark, started turning red. Magnus looked on with fascination. Suddenly, the shaking in her hand got worse and Angela dropped the blade. She breathed heavily as her hand continued to shake violently.
"That's it," Magnus smirked as he picked up the blade. "Good. Next time, it'll be easier. You'll get used to the feelings, even welcome them."
~/~\~
Outside of Magnus's mansion, it was dark, and Sam was still going through the files by lantern light. Grace was still crying from her place in Dean's arms.
"Mama! Mama!" she wailed loudly.
Dean bounced her in his arms, attempting to calm her down. "Shh, shh."
"Here's something." Sam started. "Apparently, he wanted to make the entire Men of Letters bunker invisible. All physical points of entry were to be eliminated, 'and entrance would only be gained by spell.'" He explained. "Oh. We're gonna need some things. You actually might turn out to be useful, Crowley."
~/~\~
"You'll come to understand, Angela—nothing can stop us," Magnus commented. "Anything, anyone we want to own or destroy is ours."
"Well, how about this, Magnus?" Angela glared. "How about I take a knee? Then what are you gonna do? Huh? You gonna kill me? 'Cause without this thing on my arm, that blade's nothing but a hunk of bone with teeth."
"Hmm. Well, I'm not asking you for your cooperation. I'm just taking it." Magnus grasped Angela's head. "Mentem tuam ac voluntatem adsumo."
Suddenly, Angela's eyes drained of all attitude or emotion.
"Interesting effect, huh?" Magnus smirked proudly. "All thought, all will just… drained out of you. I do this enough, you'll be ready for whatever I have in mind."
~/~\~
Sam was mixing a spell in a bowl as Dean and Crowley looked on. Grace watched her father curiously.
"I did good, eh, Moose?" Crowley asked. "Everything on the list. You're welcome."
"Remember—stay close, do what I say, and shut the hell up." Sam stood up, ignoring Crowley's plea.
"I'm growing on you, aren't I?" Crowley asked.
"Ingressum domi dona mihi." Sam chanted, ignoring Crowley.
A smoky door rose from the ground and Sam, Dean, and Crowley walked through it into Magnus's hallway.
~/~\~
"Love what he's done with the place," Crowley muttered as he looked around.
They heard footsteps coming down the hallway and ducked around a nearby corner. Magnus appeared and went to put a map in a drawer. When he turned his back, Sam leaped at him, putting a knife to his throat.
"Take me to my wife." He demanded.
~/~\~
Sam entered the room where Angela was tied up. Angela saw him leading Magnus in with a knife to his throat.
"Sam! No!" Angela called out in a panic.
Magnus immediately turned into someone else and he grabbed the knife from Sam and went to stab him. Sam recovered quickly and managed to stab him first.
The real Magnus drew Angela's gun on Sam. "Shape-shifter. You see? There are benefits to keeping a zoo."
~/~\~
Magnus had managed to tie Sam up just like Angela on another post. He drew a blade from a display and walked over to Sam.
"You know, I discarded you far too quickly, Sam." Magnus started. "You're way more valuable than I thought you were." He added before turning to Angela. "Why would I knock myself out trying to sap your will? I think Sam here will get you to see things my way."
"Magnus, I swear to God…" Angela glared.
"What? What are you gonna do?" Magnus taunted before he gashed open Sam's right cheek with his blade.
Sam yelled in pain and Angela thrashed in her bonds in a panic.
"Yeah, look, look, Sam, I'm not gonna kill you. Of course not." Magnus said as he made a cut on Sam's neck.
Angela, in her terror, noticed Crowley and Dean peeking in through a doorway.
"But I am gonna make you suffer unimaginably, alright?" Magnus chuckled darkly.
There was a sound of dropping chains and both Sam and Magnus looked over to see that Angela was gone. Before Magnus could recover, Angela dove at him with the First Blade and the Mark of Cain glowing red hot. Magnus was beheaded before he even knew what hit him.
Angela was still holding the blade in her shaking right hand. Her eyes were barely human as she watched Crowley.
"Kid…" Dean frowned deeply.
"Angela?" Sam called out. "Angie. Hey, it's over. He's dead."
"Kid, drop the blade." Dean pleaded, adjusting Grace in his arms.
Angela turned her eyes to the blade and her lips turned in an almost animal-like snarl.
"Drop the blade, Angie." Sam pleaded. "Angie!"
Suddenly, a spark of humanity flashed in Angela's eyes and they flashed to her husband's face.
"Drop the blade," Sam repeated urgently.
Angela let go and dropped the blade as she drew her shaking hand to her chest.
~/~\~
The Winchesters and Crowley started walking back to the Impala. Angela was carrying Grace in her arms.
"Brilliant, I must say." Crowley started. "I'm speaking of myself, of course. Combine a little derring-do on my part, a little dumb muscle from Bambi, a little bleeding from Moose… Happy ending. Roll credits."
Sam, Dean, and Angela stepped out of the woods and shock was written on their faces.
"No, no!" Dean yelled. "Come on. What the hell?"
The Impala's doors were open and the car looked like it had been tossed in a search of something. Dean ran to the Impala and started to check to make sure everything was okay.
"That's sulfur—demons." Sam sighed.
"Abaddon's," Angela added. "Well, she's just one jump behind us. Guess she couldn't find Magnus's join, either. What about the trunk?"
"Safe. Warding kept them out." Sam replied.
"Demon mitts all over my baby," Dean grumbled angrily.
He shut the back door, revealing that someone had keyed the whole side of the car with writing.
"Oh, come on!" Dean yelled. "Oh, now they're keying cars?!"
"What language is that?" Sam asked as Dean kneeled to get a better look.
"It's Enochian," Crowley answered. "The message isn't for you. It's for me. 'Be afraid. Your Queen.' Abaddon's getting more brazen. She thinks I'm losing my grip."
"Angela," Sam muttered. "Listen, you said Crowley was only useful till we got the blade. We got the blade."
Angela's eyes flickered to Crowley, and that's when he made his move. He flung the Winchesters to the side of the car and held them there. The First Blade fell from Sam's hand to the ground.
"You know, I'm in debt to you three," Crowley commented. "You forced sobriety on me, and now I can see the situation for what it is. Angela, you are quite the killing machine. And it occurs to me that Abaddon is not the only name on your list. My name must be up there, as well."
"It's no good to you without me." Angela reminded.
"Yes, but as long as I have it, it's no good to you," Crowley said as he drew the blade to him and held it in his hand. "Now, this is the way it's going to go—I'll hang on to old donkey teeth here until such time as you locate Abaddon. Then you'll destroy her. You're right, Moose. You can't trust me. But, sadly, I can't trust you, either."
Crowley disappeared and the three hunters were released from the side of the car. They stood there looking around in frustration.
A/N: Hey, guys, I hope you like this chapter! I'm glad that you guys don't mind that I'm skipping Bloodlines. As always, thank you for the recent reviews! Love you guys, xoxo :)
~Emily