Fight Fire With Fire

42. The Number of the Beast

[LOTUS]

Sam, Dean, Natalia and Dylan, in their FBI suits and dress, were walking down the hallway of a morgue. They showed their badges to a doctor who was coming out of a room.

"Your colleagues are already inside," the doctor informed.

Sam, Dean, Natalia and Dylan exchanged questioning looks, simultaneously putting away their badges and entered the room to find Castiel, Azrael and Crowley. They were standing next to an autopsy table, where a body laid covered by a sheet.

"Agents," Castiel, Azrael and Crowley said.

Dean frowned. "Okay, this has gotta stop. All right, give me that." Dean pulled an FBI badge off Crowley's jacket lapel.

"Armani!" Crowley protested.

"Okay, enough. Let's have a look," Sam said.

Dylan pulled the sheet down to reveal the face of the body on the table. It was an older man with his eyes burnt out.

"Ooh. Looks like somebody forgot to put on his sunscreen," Dean commented.

Natalia swatted his chest, glaring at him.

"This was Wallace Parker, the very powerful CEO of almost everything," Castiel informed.

Natalia crossed her arms. "And apparently, Lucifer's latest vessel. Wasn't strong enough to hold him."

Sam covered the man's face again.

"Lucifer's not content with slutting it from one random vessel to the next." Crowley told them. "He's moving on to blue chips — celebrities, captains of industry. He just got a lot more dangerous."

"I agree with Agent Zappa," Castiel and Azrael said.

Dean looked at the angels. "Oh, will you stop?"

Natalia rolled her eyes and narrowed her eyes at Castiel, Azrael and Crowley. "Nice work. Agents."

BUNKER

Sam, Dean and Natalia were drinking beer in the library of the Bunker. Dylan, sitting next to Sam, had chosen not to have anything.

"So, find anything?" Dean asked. "Anyone powerful or respectable who suddenly changed... or exploded?"

"Well, this is pretty interesting," Sam noted.

His laptop showed a news article with the headline 'Record Donation to Dioceses'. He clicked on a picture and turned the laptop around so Dean and Natalia could see. "This is the Archbishop of St. Louis with Wallace Parker."

The picture showed a man in a suit holding a check and shaking hands with the priest in the red robe with a large cross around his neck.

Natalia rested her feet on the table. "So?"

Sam met her eyes. "So, that was him three days ago." He scrolled through a few pictures.

Dylan pointed to a picture. "And this... is him last night at the opening of a food kitchen. You two notice anything missing?"

Dean and Natalia scrolled back and forth through the pictures before Dean said, "Yeah, the big mother of a cross around his neck."

"Exactly. And this morning, his office canceled all further public appearances without comment," Sam said.

Natalia glanced at Sam. "Okay, so you two are thinking that, uh, Lucifer blasted out of Parker and into his buddy the Archbishop here."

"Worth a shot."