Down the Rabbit Hole

Mindbender Part 2

"Cas!"Lacey jumped to her feet and rushed across the room to give Cas a hug. Cas patted her on the back awkwardly.
"Hello?" Sam asked incredulously over her shoulder.
"Y..yes?" Cas seemed unsure.
"Hello?" Sam said, imitating Cas' voice. "Hello?"
"Uh, that is still the term?" Cas asked, looking at Lacey questioningly. She nodded at him before returning to her seat.
"I spent all that time trying to get through to you. Dean calls once and now its "Hello?"" Sam told him, exasperated.
"Yes."
"So...so what you like him better or something?" Sam asked, sounding like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Dean and I do share a more profound bond." Cas turned to Dean. "I wasn't going to mention it."
"Cas I think what he's trying to say is...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?"
"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." Cas told them darkly.
"So...it wasn't God?" Sam asked.
"No one's even seen God. The whole thing remains mysterious." Cas informed them.
"What the hell does that mean?" Sam sounded annoyed.
"What part of "I don't know" escapes your understanding?"
"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..." Lacey smirked as Dean struggled to find the right words.
"You think I came because you called?" Cas asked him. Lacey let out a "Hah!" and Dean gave her a look. "I came because of this." Cas motioned towards the research spread out across the table.
"Oh well, it's nice to know what matters." Dean told him sarcastically.
"It does help one to focus." Cas replied, taking him literally.
"Wait so...so you and the Halo patrol, you guys aren't the cause of theses killings?" Sam asked.
"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?" Sam asked, looking surprised.
"It was used in a dominance display against the Egyptians if I recall." Cas replied as he picked up the jar of locusts from the table.
"Yeah, that one made the papers." Dean rolled his eyes at him.
"But... but I though the Staff turned a river into blood...not one dude."
"The weapon isn't being used at full capacity. I think we can rule out Moses as a suspect." Cas informed them. Lacey stared at him like he'd gone mad... well more so than usual.
"Okay but...what is Chuck Heston's disco stick doing down here anyway? I mean don't you guys put away your toys?" Lacey grinned at this, Cas was kind of like an over grown kid.
"Before the apocalypse heaven might have been corrupt but it was stable. The staff was safely contained. It's been chaos up there since the war ended. In that confusion...a number of powerful weapons were stolen."
"Wait you...you're saying your nukes are loose?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. But you've stumbled onto one of them. We must find the weapon that did this. I need your help." Lacey winced, sensing there would be an objection from one party or another...actually it was just one.
"That's rich. Really." Sam scoffed, as if he could read her thoughts. Cas threw the jar he was holding toward Sam who caught it.
"Sam, Dean, Lacey, my "People Skills" are "Rusty"" Cas said holding his finger up to make quotation marks in the air. "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."
"Alright, okay." Dean tried to smooth it over. "Well if the angels didn't pull the trigger then that brings us back to motive."
"What?"
"Back to the case." Sam clarified. "Right now we've got three dead cops. Only thing linking them is this." Sam held up a newspaper clipping. "Father of slain suspect calls for investigation."

"Whoa." Lacey said as she righted herself. Cas had transported the three of them into the home of the father of Christopher Birch.
"Oh, Cas, a little warning next time." Dean reminded him. A man got up out of a chair.
"What the...how'd you get in here?!" He asked incredulously.
"Mr Birch, settle down." Sam pulled out his FBI badge. "Federal agents."
"But you can't just walk in here." The man protested.
"Quite a collection you've got there." Sam said as he pointed to the coffee table which was strewn with newspaper clippings.
"What are you trying to..."
"Look we know the truth alright?" Sam interrupted. "Chris didn't have a gun on him when those cops shot him. They set him up."
"Yeah. And they're all getting theirs." The man replied.
"And who's giving it to them Darryl?" Sam asked, accusingly.
"Darryl? Did you kill Toby Grey and the others?" Dean asked.
"Me?!" Darryl sounded shocked. "I didn't kill anyone! Look at how they died!"
"You smote them with the Staff of Moses." Cas butted in. The guy looked at Cas like he was crazy.
"The hell kind of Fed are you?"
"We don't have time for this. Where is it?" Cas asked, stepping towards him.
"Leave my dad alone!" Came a voice from the doorway. The four of them spun round to find a kid standing there brandishing a stick.
"Is that...? Yes." Cas said, eyeing up the Staff.
"Shouldn't it be bigger?" Sam asked.
"Yes. It's...it's been sawed off." Cas said, sounding pained.
"Leave him alone. it wasn't him!" The kid yelled.
"Aaron, get out of here!" Darryl told him. Cas reached out and touched Darryl's forehead, a moment later he slumped backwards into the chair, unconscious.
"What did you do to him?" Aaron demanded.
"It's Okay." Lacey told him, stepping towards him. "He's asleep, that's all." A moment later Cas was at Aaron's side and removed the Staff from his grip.
"Cas, take it easy!" Dean warned him. "Listen, we're not here to hurt you, okay?" Dean told Aaron. "But we need to know... where did you get this thing?"
"Please don't kill my dad. It was me. I did it." Aaron pleaded.
"Okay, nobody's killing anybody. What's your name?" Dean asked.
"Aaron. Aaron Birch."
"Okay, Aaron Birch, where did you get this?"
"You won't believe me."
"Try me."
"It was an angel."
"An angel?" Dean asked, looking surprised.
"Those liars. They killed my brother and nothing bad even happened to them. It's not fair. So I prayed to God every night he would punish them. God didn't answer. But he did."
"His name...did he give you a name?" Cas asked.
"No. He just said I could have justice, but I was gonna have to take it myself. He...he gave me the stick."
"He just...gave it to you?" Dean asked unbelievingly. "Ah, come on. He didn't just give it to you did he Aaron?"
"I bought it." Aaron replied defiantly.
"You bought it?" Sam asked, sounding amused. "With what? What's your allowance?"
"What did the angel want for it? What did you give him for it?" Dean asked, beginning to sound worried.
"My soul."
"You sold your soul to an angel?" Sam asked. Lacey's eyes widened.
"Can that even happen?" Dean asked Cas.
"It's never happened before. An angel's buying souls. That could explain why he cut the Staff into pieces."
"Why?"
"More pieces, more product."
"More "Product"? Who is this guy?" Dean asked angrily.
"We'll find him." Cas reassured him. He reached out an touched Aaron's forehead, knocking him unconscious.
"What did you do that for?" Dean asked as Cas hiked Aaron over his shoulder.
"Portability." Cas replied before transporting them all back to the hotel.