[The Third Man]
"Meet me in Easter, PA. Change of plans."
"Why are you in Pennsylvania?"
"Caught a case."
"A case? Sam, it's not even been two days."
"I like to work."
"Yeah. I gathered."
"Great. Let me know when you and Nate roll into town."
Sam hung up and Holly frowned at her phone. "Yes, sir, Captain Kirk."
She heard a knock on the door and opened it to see Dean. "You lovebirds ready?"
Nate nodded. "Yeah, we're set. Thanks for swinging by."
"Yeah, we gotta go."
They met up with Sam and drove to the police station. Sam briefed them. "Officer Gerald Hatch, 17-year veteran, found dead in the ready room three days ago."
Dean read the file, Nate reading along with him. "Whoa." Dean commented. "Somebody was over-hydrated."
Sam laughed. "Basically, yeah. The guy just...liquefied. Most of the meat, bones, dense tissues--they just turned to blood."
Dean frowned. "Okay, I don't get it."
"Nobody gets it."
"No. I mean, I get that. I'm saying, if the guy was a mop job, then what are we doing in the morgue? What's left of him to look at?"
"Not here to look at him. Here." He opened a drawer, revealing the boils-covered cop.
"Ooh. Bad news." Dean and Holly said.
"Officer Toby Gray. They just brought him in. Found him dead in his patrol car, sitting at a speed trap on the outside of town."
""Extreme allergic reaction."" Nate read.
Sam looked at him. "Yeah. Boils. Covered from head to toe."
Holly studied Officer Gray's throat and Dean read, "Yeah, on the inside, too. It says his airways are chock full of them. This startin' to look a little witchy to you guys?"
Sam shook his head. "That was my first instinct, but I found zero signs of hexwork anywhere. Far as I can tell, witchcraft was not involved."
"There's got to be some sort of link between, uh, skid mark and bubble wrap here."
"No question."
Holly raised an eyebrow. "Can we get a witness?"
"Yep. Uh..." He looked at the notes. "Officer Ex Colfax. Saw Hatch go from a solid to a liquid."
"Another cop?" Nate questioned.
"Hatch's partner." Sam replied pushing the body back into its drawer.
They got back in the car and Sam swung his car around a corner. Dean pulled out in front of Sam and was first to park.
Sam frowned. "Were you, uh...were you racing me?"
"No. I was kicking your ass." Dean smirked.
Holly grinned. "We were kicking your ass."
Sam frowned at his siblings. "Very mature."
They knocked on the door and Dean called, "Hello? Officer Colfax?"
The door opened to reveal Ed in full uniform and Dean said, "Whoa. Lookin' sharp, Kojak."
Ed frowned. "Who the hell are you? Why are there four of you?"
"Got two rookies with us today. We're the Fed, Ed. We're here to ask you a few follow-up questions about your partner's death."
Ed shook his head. "Don't worry about it. It's nobody's business."
"Officer Colfax--"
"Don't worry about it!"
Ed slammed the door shut and Sam, feeling exasperated, kicked the door in.
"Dude!" Dean and Holly cried.
They walked towards Ed's office and passed a wall of family photos with faces scratched out. They walked into Ed's office to see him using a screwdriver to scratch out the face of his police portrait.
"Officer Colfax?" Sam asked.
Dean frowned. "Hey, man, you alright?"
"Don't worry about it." Officer Colfax replied.
Holly nodded slowly. "Right. Uh, Officer Colfax--er, Ed. We think your partner might have died from unnatural causes."
Ed scratched his head and Dean asked, "Did he have any enemies that you know of?"
"You might say that."
Sam frowned. "Oh, yeah? Who's that?"
"They both had it coming. Me too. I'll be the next to go, and then it'll be over. And God will be satisfied."
"Why does God want all of you dead?" Nate inquired.
"Cause of Christopher Birch." He knocked over a bottle of alcohol and watched it spill. "Oh, damnit."
"Who's Christopher Birch?" Sam asked.
"He has no face."
"Ed?"
"Officer, you alright?" Dean asked with slight worry.
Ed sat the bottle upright as Sam questioned, "Who is Christopher Birch, Ed?"
"Ed!" Dean cried.
Ed finally answered. "Christopher Birch is a kid with no face...and a planted gun."
Dean frowned. "Uh, you, uh...you got a little something..." Blood dribbled from under Ed's hat and he put a finger to it. "...yeah."
"Damn. My head's been itching like a dirty jock." He fell forward and his face landed on the broken glass of the picture frame.
"Ed?" Sam asked, walking behind the desk to check Ed's pulse. "Dead."
There was a buzzing sound and Dean questioned, "You hear that?"
Sam removed Ed's hat. Holly grimaced, seeing locusts crawl from a hole in Ed's head.
They made their way back to the hotel and Dean and Nate looked through papers at one end of the table, Sam had his laptop at the other end, and Holly had a Bible open on one of the beds.
"Sweet." Dean commented. "Blood, boils, locusts."
"Three of your more popular Egyptian plagues." Sam said.
"The early ones." Holly clarified.
Dean picked up a jar of locusts. "Yeah, but these guys...ate their way out of a cop's melon. I don't quite remember that in the King James."
Nate shook his head. "That's because it wasn't."
Sam frowned slightly. "Meanwhile, a kid named Christopher Birch was shot in the head last month after a vehicle pursuit. Hatch, Gray, and Colfax were the three officers involved, and they all filed the exact same police report."
Dean continued reading the report. ""Suspect exited vehicle brandishing a firearm. We were forced to fire. Just a kid with no face and a planted gun." Bunch of dicks. So they pop the kid, plant the piece."
Sam shrugged. "Maybe Colfax is right. You know, maybe heaven has a hate-on for bad cops."
"So we're listening to the guy with the bug in his custard? That's--that's the, uh, the theory you want to go on with?"
"Dean, angels got to have something to do, right, now that we're post-apocalypse?"
Dean opened a beer. "We should call Cas."
Holly nodded. "Yes. I second that."
"You two are kidding, right?" Sam scoffed. "Dean, Holly, I tried. It was the first and second and third thing I did, soon as I got topside. Son of a bitch won't answer the phone."
Dean sat on the bed. "Well, let's give it a shot. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray to Castiel to get his feathery ass down here."
"I pray to the angel of Thursday to show his face." Holly said.
Sam frowned. "You're idiots."
"Stay positive." Dean and Holly replied.
Sam frowned. "Oh, I am positive."
Nate shot Sam a disapproving look before Dean said, "Come on, Cas! Don't be a dick. We got ourselves a..plague-like situation down here, and...do you...do you copy?"
"Like I said..." He cleared his throat. "...son of a bitch doesn't answer--" He noticed his siblings' wide eyes. "He's right behind me, isn't he?"
"Hello." Cas said.
"Hello?" Sam repeated.
"Y-yes."
Sam imitated Cas's voice. ""Hello."" He said in his normal voice, "Hello."
Cas frowned. "Uh, that is still the term?"
"I spent all that time trying to get through to you. Dean and Holly call you once, and now it's," He imitated Cas's voice again. ""Hello"?"
"Yes."
"So, what, you--you like them better or something?" He scoffed.
"Dean, Holly, and I do share a more profound bond. I am Holly's guardian angel." He turned to Dean and Holly. "I wasn't gonna mention it."
Dean frowned slightly. "Cas, I think what he's trying to say is that...he went to Hell for us. I mean, he really took one for the team. You remember that? And then he comes back without a clue, and you can't take five friggin' minutes to give him some answers?"
Cas said strongly, "If I had any answers, I might have responded. But I don't know, Sam. We have no idea who brought you back from the cage...or why."
"So...it wasn't God?" Sam questioned.
"No one's even seen God. The whole thing remains mysterious."
Nate shrugged. "God is mysterious in himself."
"Shut up. What the hell does that mean?"
Cas narrowed his eyes. "What part of "I don't know" escapes your understanding?"
Dean gave him a look. "Cas, look, if Sam calls, you answer. Okay? You wing your ass down here, and you tell him, "I don't know." Just because we have some sort of a--a bond or whatever..."
"You think I came because you two called? I came because of this." He walked to the table where Dean and Nate's research was laid out.
Dean scoffed lightly. "Oh, well, it's nice to know what matters."
"It does help one to focus."
Sam frowned. "Wat, so--so you and the Halo Patrol, you guys aren't the cause of the killings?"
"No. But they were committed with one of our weapons. There's only one thing that could have brought this into existence. You call it the Staff of Moses."
"The staff?"
Cas picked up the jar of locusts. "It was used in a dominance display against the Egyptians, as I recall."
Nate nodded as Sam said in confusion, "B-but I thought the Staff turned, like, a--a river into blood; not one dude."
Nate glanced at him before turning to Cas. "I suspect the weapon has more power not being used, right, Castiel?"
Cas looked at him. "Yes. I think we can rule Moses out as a subject."
Dean frowned slightly. "Okay, but...what is--what is Chuck Heston's disco stick doing down here, anyway? I mean, don't you guys put away your toys?"
"Before the apocalypse, Heaven may have been corrupt, but it was stable. The staff was safely contained." He sighed. "It's been chaos up there since the war ended. In that confusion, a number of...powerful weapons were...stolen."
Holly's eyebrows raised. "Wait, you're telling us your nukes, the most powerful weapons you got, are loose?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. But you've stumbled into one of them. We must find the weapon that did this." He indicated to the jar of locusts. "I need your help."
Sam scoffed. "That's rich. Really."
Cas grunted and tossed the jar of locusts at Sam and air-quoted. "Nate, Sam, Dean, Holly, my "people skills" are "rusty". Pardon me, but I have spent the last "year" as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent. But believe me, you do not want that weapon down here. Help me find it. Or more people will die."
Dean took a moment to think. "Alright. Okay. Well, if the angels didn't pull the trigger, then that brings us back to motive."
"What?"
Sam's brow furrowed. "Back to the case. Right now, we got three dead cops. Only thing linking them...is this." Dean handed Sam a newspaper clipping. ""Father of slain suspect calls for investigation.""
While Sam and Dean made their way to the Birch home, Holly and Nate made their way to the station to see if they could find anything else.
Her phone rang and she answered. 'Hello?"
Dean's voice came through. "Meet us at the hotel room, H."
"When?"
"As soon as you can."
"Okay." She said, hanging up before turning to Nate. "We gotta go back to the hotel."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Dean sounded kinda desperate, like they found something."
"Well, let's go."
Nate and Holly entered Sam's hotel room and she frowned. "Why are we kidnapping kids? Last I knew that wasn't in the job description. You three have five seconds to explain."
Sam met her eyes and said bluntly, "Kid sold his soul to an angel. We need to find out who it is."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "Cas wants to find who bought his soul."
"How?" Holly asked. "Are you gonna damage the kid?"
Cas turned to her. "There will be some minimal damage, but no permanent. This is the only way I can think to track the angel down."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "She and I are all for that. But come on. There's got to be another way."
"There is no other way."
"You're gonna torture a kid?"
"I can't care about that, Dean, Holly! I don't have the luxury."
Cas pushed his hand into Aaron's chest and Aaron screamed. Dean and Holly advanced and Sam held Dean back while motioning for Nate to hold Holly back. Aaron's body lit up from inside and he soon stopped screaming and fell unconscious.
Cas withdrew his hand and said, "He'll rest now."
"Did you get a name?" Sam asked. "What is it?"
"I thought he died in the war."
"What, he--he was a--a friend or something?"
Cas sighed. "A good friend."
Dean frowned. "Yeah, well, your frat buddy is now moonlighting as a crossroads demon."
"Balthazar. I wonder..."
"So we can find him now. Right?" Holly interrupted.
An angel appeared and said, "Balthazar. Thanks, Castiel. We'll make good use of the name." The angel attacked Cas with an angel-killing sword and Cas blocked it with his own. "And by the way, Raphael says hello."
The angel and Cas fought and eventually lost both their swords. They grappled each other and jumped through the window, falling several stories onto a car parked on the street. Nate, Sam, and Dean looked out the window. Holly stayed back, not wanting to scare herself. The angel disappeared and Cas was standing next to the destroyed vehicle.
"My car." Sam said.
Dean nodded. "Okay. Silver lining."
Cas reappeared in the room. "He's gone."
Sam turned to him. "Alright, Cas, who was that guy?"
"A soldier of Raphael. He must have followed me when I answered your call."
"Raphael? The archangel? I'm sorry, what's going on here?"
Cas grabbed a bowl from a cupboard. "I can explain later. Right now we have to--"
Dean shook his head. "No, not later. Now. Stop, alright? Too many angels, Cas! I don't know who's on first, what's on second."
"What is "second"?!"
"What's on second." Holly corrected.
"I don't understand."
Dean frowned at them. "Don't start that. Quiet, H."
Cas met Dean's eyes. "It is simple. Raphael and his followers, they want him to rule Heaven. I--and many others--the last thing we want is to let him take over. It would be catastrophic."
"You're talking civil war." Sam realized.
"Technically, yes. Which is why we have to find Balthazar and his weapons before Raphael does. Whoever has the weapons wins the war."
Cas started pulling Sam's weapons bag from under his bed. "Help yourself."
Holly frowned. "What happens if Raphael wins? What does he want?"
Cas grabbed a flask of holy water from Sam's bag. "What he's always wanted--to end the story the way it was written."
"Hang on. You're talking about the apocalypse, the one me and my brothers derailed?"
"Yes. That one. Raphael wants to put it back on the rails."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"I need myrrh."
"Myrrh?" Sam and Nate repeated.
Cas was no longer standing by the bed and Dean muttered, "Freakin' angels."
Cas reappeared by Dean, drawing on the kitchen table with chalk. Dean asked, "Why does Raphael want to bring back all this crap?"
"He's a traditionalist."
"Cas, why didn't you tell us this?"
"I was ashamed. I expected more from my brothers. I'm sorry. Now I need your blood." He reached for Holly's wrist.
Dean and Nate pushed her back and Dean cried, "Whoa, whoa! Hey! Ahh! Why don't you use your own?"
"It wouldn't work. I'm not human."
Dean offered his hand and squeezed it shut. Blood dripped into the bowl and Cas added myrrh, holy water, and intones.
Sirens sounded and Sam asked, "Uh, Cas, how long does this spell take?"
The wailing intensified and Cas answered, "Got him. Let's go."
Dean frowned. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about him?" He gestured to a still unconscious Adam.
"Don't you think the police will take him home?"
Holly narrowed her eyes. "Well, that's awesome."
They made their way to the mansion and heard crickets chirping. Dean commented, "Huh. I was expecting Dr. No, less Liberace."
The five of them advanced on the mansion and Cas teleported upstairs.
Nate glanced to Holly. "Stay with me."
"Nate--"
"No. Don't argue. Please. These are angels, and I don't know what's gonna happen. If you died, I-I don't know what I'd do with myself."
They started fighting angels and noticed an angel patrolling the grounds. "Hey, there." Sam said, pulling out an angel-killing sword. "Yeah, I got one of those, too."
The angel appeared behind Sam, holding the knife to his throat. "You think you can knife-fight an angel?"
"Who's fighting?" Dean replied. "Peace out, douchewad." He slapped an angel-banishing sigil painted on the side of the house and the angel disappeared.
"Bye-bye." Holly said in an irritated tone.
They entered the mansion and Dean immediately said, "No time like the present." He flicked a lighter and dropped it on a circle of holy oil, surrounding Balthazar.
"Holy fire." Balthazar realized. "You hairless ape! Release me!"
Dean glared at him. "First you're taking your marker off of Aaron Birch's soul!"
"Am I?!"
"Sam?!"
"Unless you like your wings extra crispy--" He uncorked a bottle of holy oil. "--I'd think about it."
Balthazar narrowed his eyes. "Castiel, I stood for you in Heaven. Are you gonna let--"
"I believe...the hairless ape has the floor." Cas interrupted.
Balthazar laughed. "Very well." He inhaled and clasped his hands to his forehead and exhaled. "The boy's debt is cleared. His soul is his own."
Holly frowned. "Why are you buying up human souls in the first place?"
"In this economy? It's probably the only thing worth buying. Do you two have any idea what souls are worth? What part they hold? Now...release me."
"You know what, you can suck it, ass clown. No one said anything about--"
Cas lowered his hand and lowered the flames. Dean narrowed his eyes. "Cas, what the hell?"
Cas said to Balthazar, "My debt to you is cleared."
Balthazar replied, "Fair enough."
Dean and Holly glared at the angel and he protested, "Cas, are you out of your mind?!" Cas disappeared. "Cas?! Oh, friggin' angels! Come on!"
Dean rearranged weapons in the back trunk of the Impala, Holly helping. He frowned slightly. "Yeah, well, I didn't realize I had this much stuff back here."
"Well, I need some space." Sam answered. "Kind of picked up some stuff along the way."
Dean closed the false bottom on the weapons cache. Sam placed his duffle bag on top and noticed a mask before pulling it out. "What the hell is that?"
"Oh, it's, uh, Ben's Halloween costume."
"Wendigo?"
"Yeah."
"Accurate."
Holly giggled softly. "He'll be the scariest monster in town."
Dean closed the trunk and the siblings looked at the lake before talking. Nate stood back.
Dean turned to Sam. "Hey, so, uh...are you okay? Holly, you okay?"
"Me?" Sam asked with a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm great."
Holly turned to him. "I'm okay, D. Really, Sam? Cause there's been a few times you got us wondering."
"Come again?"
Dean frowned a moment. "Really? Cause honestly, I felt like Holly and I were the only ones raising a card."
Nate raised his hand. "Hey, I was too."
Sam glanced between his siblings. "Right. Uh, I mean, I was with you, but...I don't know. W-we needed the intel."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I know, but we tortured that kid to get it."
Sam sighed and Dean continued, "I just didn't get the feeling that you--that you even cared."
"Y-you're wrong." Sam stuttered.
Holly pursed her lips. "Dude, we're just trying to figure this out cause...well, cause something's off with you. And you know that."
"Yeah. Yeah, I know."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean...I've been hunting non-stop for the past year, kind of...kind of in the wild, you know? So, yeah, I suppose I'm a little rough around the edges."
Dean nodded slowly. "Yeah, I get that. Holly's been hunting for the past year, too. I just don't think we're getting the whole scoop. You went to hell, Sam. And believe me, I know what that does to a guy."
"To you."
"What?"
"You know what it does to you. It--it tortured you. You know? I think it still does. And your nightmares still torture you, sis. But, Dean, Holly...I'm okay."
Dean cracked a smirk. "So you're saying, what, that--that you're stronger than us?"
Sam chuckled. "No. Just saying we're different. You and Holly are the same." He paused, slapped the roof of the Impala, and got inside.
Dean and Holly pondered and got into the car, Nate following.