Fullmetal Alchemist/Supernatural - (Nano 2008) [10]

[scriveyner]

Title: Untitled Nano 2008 - 10
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist, Supernatural
AU: Mashup
Characters/Pairing: Ed, Al, Bobby, Castiel
Rating: T
Length: 5622
Summary:



The shotgun blast would attract a whole lot of unwanted attention very quickly, so Ed ordered the golem out of the room and Bobby grabbed everything they needed. It didn't take them long to clear out, and Bobby led Ed to another, seedier looking motel on the outskirts of town.

They put the golem inside, and Bobby put up all sorts of protective wards so they could plan. Ed was about three seconds from just having the golem lead them to where Al was, but Bobby calmed him down enough to plan something out.

The room was smaller than the one Ed and Al had shared, only one bed and a beaten couch, with a table and two chairs in the corner and a TV that had to be twice Ed's age. It smelled of must and now, a bit of melted wax.

Ed had started out questioning the golem but didn't get particularly far, the golem was made of wax and couldn't talk. Bobby had the golem write answers in a notebook.

"They're in French," Bobby said, looking at the written answers. 

"Can you read French?" Ed asked hopefully.

Bobby shot him a look. "You think I got room in my head for every damn foofy language out there? Latin's more important, anyway. We'll have to translate it."

"Wonderful," Ed groaned. 

#

Al woke up with a pounding headache and thirsty. He cracked open his eyes and realized with a start that he was tied to a chair. Al had been tied to enough chairs in his life to realize whoever tied him down was decently skilled at it. After jerking himself about a bit all he managed to do was make the chair move across the concrete.

The noise of the chair leg on concrete ought to get /someone's/ attention. Al looked around the room he was in, it looked like a basement. A few small windows set up high, near the roof were letting in daylight. There was a long wood table against one wall, and it was covered in books and vials and all sorts of things he couldn't see from his position, even with craning his neck. Al checked under him, but there was nothing drawn on the concrete.

There was a set of wooden stairs running up out of sight if he turned his head achingly back. He wanted to prod at it but that wasn't a good idea, he was sure. Instead he focused on tugging at his bonds.

"Are you awake now?" The voice came from somewhere behind him, and Al jerked his head, trying to source it. 

"Who are you?" His voice was hoarse.

His captor walked around him, keeping a good distance between them, ever with Al tied down. He was middle-aged, pretty average looking, and dressed in a polo shirt and slacks. "I didn't expect Nicolas to bring you with him," he said, tapping a finger against his lips thoughtfully.

Al tugged at his bindings again. "Who /are/ you?"

"Doesn't matter to you, anyway." The man shrugged. "The only reason I've kept you alive is because she wanted you still alive. She seems to have a thing for toying with people, and me? I just obey." He grinned, and his dark eyes grew darker as they shuttered solid black and back again.

Folding his hand behind his back, he started to walk to the table full of books and papers. "This guy's real interesting, you know? Fancies himself an alchemist. Real perverted fuck, he built the golem we used to get close to the seal." He tapped one of the books out of Al's sight. "Was going to try a chimera next. That would give you Hunters fits, wouldn't it? I would sure like to see that."

"You're sick," Al said.

The demon shrugged, pulling a chair away from the wall and sitting opposite Al. "What can I say, I'm a curious fellow," he said, his grin full of shark-teeth. "Now, this -" He wiggled about a bit, and then pulled the stone that had drawn Al's attention from his pocket. "This is a seal, a small one by all respects but I've been told it's an important one."

He held it up to the wan light, where it sparkled and shattered the stream of light into red hues that played all over the floor. "There's a problem with it, though."

Al didn't say anything, but watched the demon close his hand over the rock, then throw it against the floor. Instead of shattering like Al was expecting, it bounced. The force of the demon's throw caused the concrete floor to chip but there was no damage to the rock itself.

"We can't break it," the demon growled.

Al almost laughed in relief. He did manage to stop a gratified smile from spreading across his features, but just barely.

The demon nudged the rock with his foot, eying Al's relieved face darkly. "Don't look too happy, meat," he growled. "Your brother's bringing the key here, and then you'll both be Lilith's lunch and the seal will be obliterated!"

The demon stood up and placed the rock on his empty seat. "Go on an think about it," he said sweetly.

Al stared at the demon defiantly. A second person banged down the steps. "Tucker, you ass. Where have you been, Lilith is looking for you!"

The demon bowed at Al, and then walked away. Al turned his head to watch the other demon chatter at the one he called Tucker, and then they both headed up the stairs.

Al craned his neck, but no one seemed to be coming back down the stairs. He leaned his head back, then looked at the stone glittering on the chair opposite him.

Something about that stone...

He started trying to scoot his chair over, and had managed to move it several inches before one chair leg caught in the indentation that the rock had made when it hit the concrete. Al swore, trying to keep his balance but the chair tipped him face forward, and he hit the concrete hard on his left side. He saw stars for a few moments, and rested his head on the concrete, waiting for one of the demons in the house to come check on what the noise was.

No one came looking, so Al tried levering himself back up, but with his legs and arms both tied to the chair it wasn't happening any time soon. He glowered up at the rock, glittering in the afternoon light, and hoped to god that Ed wasn't doing something ridiculously stupid.

#

"You're going to get yourself killed," Bobby argued as Ed checked one of the sawed-off shotguns they kept in the trunk of the Impala.

"Didn't say you had to come with me," Ed said, tucking the Colt into the back of his pants. The demon-hunting knife in one boot, and another gun in the shoulder holster he sometimes wore under his leather jacket. 

"You're a damn fool is what you are," Bobby said. "Of course I'm coming with you, you're just gonna to get us both killed going off half-cocked like this."

Ed stood in front of the dresser, flipping through the book that Castiel had called a key. "This is not half-cocked," Ed said, closing it and throwing it at the golem. "Catch it, Fido."

The golem caught the book reflexively, and didn't move again.

"That thing's pretty useful," Ed murmured, shrugging on his jacket. He looked up at Bobby. "You ready?"

Bobby nodded wordlessly to Ed, and Ed half-turned. He was not surprised to see Castiel standing in the doorway. Ed blew out a breath, exasperated. "Look," he said. "I told you I'd give you the damn key to destroy when I had Al back, not before."

Castiel looked at him calmly. "The key must be destroyed."

"What part of "after" is not in your vocabulary?"

"Dean," Castiel said gently. "I won't take it from you. But I cannot leave you to go against that demon hive with it."

"So you're going to stop us, is that it?" Ed slung the shotgun in one arm. "Gonna use the Force and knock us out or what?"

"No," Castiel said. "I'm going to come with you."

Ed stared at him. "What."

"If you won't surrender the book to me, then I must safeguard it until you do." Castiel glanced side-long at the golem, which still stood impassively.

"Fine," Ed said. He gestured at the golem. "Let's go kick your boss's ass, Fido." 

The golem shuffled obediently forward and out the door.

#

"This has to be the strangest car trip I've ever been on," Bobby muttered from the passenger seat. 

Ed ignored him. The golem had written out directions, which they had run through several different translators before mapping them. It turned out that the golem's creator was housed on the outskirts of a town about three hours drive from Anson.

Castiel sat silently in the backseat, beside the golem that still held the book. Ed had instructed the golem to not surrender the key to anyone, and the golem would honor those orders until new ones overwrote his current ones, or until the golem was destroyed. 

He glanced in the rearview mirror. Castiel was staring at the back of his head with his piercing, silent gaze. Ed ducked his head and stared out at the road. 

"This seal," Ed said quietly. "What is it?"

Bobby looked up at him, then glanced over his shoulder at the angel, who looked only slightly out of place in the back seat of the Impala.

"You have already seen the seal," Castiel said.

"That wasn't my question," Ed said, his eyes flicking up to the rear view mirror again. "What is it? It's not just a rock, it can't be. Every other seal so far has had something to do with spooks or demons or other mystical crap. There's no way it's just some garden variety pebble."

Castiel was silent for a long moment. "It is the last surviving stone of the sages," he said. 

"'Stone of the Sages,'" Bobby repeated thoughtfully.

"It's the Philosopher's Stone," Ed said quietly.

Bobby looked at Ed, startled, then back at Castiel. "For real? The whole immortality thing and transmuting base metals in to gold?"

"You don't need the Stone for basic transmutation," Ed said ironically. "Remember the pencil, and the car engine? Lead to gold is even simpler than constructing a car engine."

"The Philosopher's Stone is so much more than that," Castiel said. "It is a key to great knowledge and great hardship as well." He glanced out the window. "We cannot allow it to be destroyed."

#

Al had wriggled his right leg slowly and laboriously free from the binding that tied it to the leg of the chair, but was now at a loss as to what to do next. He tried throwing his body weight against the chair to scoot it across the concrete further, but he didn't know what he was going to do. Even if he managed to get himself across the room, it wasn't like he would accomplish anything, eventually a demon would come downstairs to check on him, set him back upright, and leave.

He groaned, kicking his right leg uselessly.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Al's eyes flew open. A girl in a pink pinafore dress was crouched a little way away from him, her long brown hair pulled in two pigtails. A huge white dog stood behind her, panting audibly.

The girl smiled innocently at him, and over that innocent smile her eyes shuttered between solid white and back again.

Al threw his entire body backwards against the chair and only succeeded in scooting the chair an inch or two.

"Lilith," he grated out as she dropped back to sitting on her bottom, smiling still that innocent smile.

"How did you EVER guess," she said cheerfully. The dog barked to accentuate her statement. "Silly," she scolded the dog, and it whined.

She watched him for a moment. "Your silly brother is bringing the key to me, you know," she said with a giggle. She hopped to her feet and danced over to where the stone was sitting on the other demon's abandoned chair. She knelt next to it, peering at the rock. "Only a few more seals," she said cheerfully. "Then /I/ win and /you/ lose."

"Why haven't you killed me yet?" Al gritted out, and she turned around and beamed at him, reaching out and patting his cheek. He recoiled at her touch but he didn't have anywhere to go.

"Silly," she repeated. "It'll be so much more /fun/ to kill you while your brother watches, helpless." She straightened up. "It's odd that the angels haven't killed you yet because of your demon blood," she said speculatively, then shrugged. 

The demon who had come down to speak with Al before came down the stairs then. "Lilith," he called. "The cake you wanted is coming out of the oven."

"Cake!" She danced around, arms outstretched, before running toward the man and practically leaping into his arms. The dog lingered a moment, eying Al hungrily, but Lilith called the dog over to her. "Don't worry," she laughed, petting the large white dog from the other demon's arms. "I'll let you eat what's left of him later."

Al shuddered as the demons went back up the stairs.

#

Ed pulled off the road about half a mile away from their destination. He got the golem out of his Impala (that waxy smell was going to linger, he just /knew/ it) and sent it into the woods. Castiel stood beside the car, and Ed waved at the golem. "He's got the key," he said. "We're not taking it any closer to the demons than here, but you probably should stay with it in case she sends her thugs out after it."

Castiel didn't move.

Ed eyed him, standing with the driver's side door open. "What, are you actually going to see this through with us?"

"Dean," Castiel said. "Be careful." He turned and walked away from the Impala, following the golem's large trail into the underbrush.

Ed hesitated for a moment, before getting back in the car and slamming the door.

Bobby glanced at the woods as Ed pulled back on the road. "Are you sure it's a good idea? What if he just torches the golem?"

"He can torch the golem if he wants to," Ed said, reaching into his jacket and pulling a wad of papers out. "I took out the important shit anyway."

Bobby took the half-crumpled papers from Ed and flipped through them. "This is all in -" He flattened one page against the dashboard. "Ed, can you read this?"

"Somewhat," Ed said, eyes on the road. "It took me a few hours to start recognizing characters, but I've seen it before. Why, you know what it is?"

"Ed, it's Enochian," Bobby ran his finger along the line of strange symbols. "It looks like it's the original form, too - I can interpret it with my key to the cipher, but -" He glanced sidelong at Ed. "Enochian is said to be the ancient scripture of the angels."

Silent for a moment, Ed laughed derisively. "Of course it is," he said, shaking his head. "Just, just that just /figures./"

Bobby folded the crumpled pages and tucked them into his own pocket. "I don't know how Enochian can unlock the Philosopher's Stone of all things, but I've seen enough strange shit to not worry about it now," he said. Ed nodded, driving past the turnoff at full speed.

He parked the Impala a half-mile the other direction off the road. He popped the trunk of the car, and he and Bobby passed each other weapons.

"Five to ten demons," Ed guessed. "Plus Lilith."

Bobby handed him a flash of holy water. "This could be it, bucko."

Ed grinned at him, slamming the trunk of the Impala. "It'll take more than a few demons to finish us off."

#

Al was somewhere between dozing and not, his head pounding in time with his heartbeat. He was so very thirsty, parched, and he could hear the demons upstairs putting on the masquerade of being human. 

None of the demons who had been downstairs to check on him had bothered setting him upright. They didn't seem to care about anything other than that he was still alive and that the stone was undisturbed. Al didn't understand why that was such a big deal, even if it was the seal, why was its location important?

He heard noise on the stairs again and lifted his head wearily.

The steps were careful, and even - the sound of someone distributing their weight evenly as they came down the stairs. Someone was being quiet and cautious.

Al was certain he was hallucinating - the guy coming down the stairs looked slightly like Ed but not quite, his hair was shorter, darker in color and his face was different. He covered the entire basement with his gun, before moving quietly over to Al.

"Al, you all right?"

No, this was Ed. Al shook his head and Ed looked normal to him. "Ed?" his voice was so hoarse it was barely there.

Ed didn't waste time, slicing the ropes that tied Al to the chair with the knife. Al dropped to the ground but Ed caught him, supporting him and getting him back up on his feet. 

"Where are all the demons, Al?" Ed looked around, handing off his gun to Al.

"They were just here," Al murmured, looking at the gun in his hand and back to Ed. Ed was doing another sweep of the basement, picking up the stone without flinching and looking at it. 

"So this is it," he said, holding it up. "Cause of all my grief." He pocketed it and looked at Al, who was looking at him oddly. "Al, what is it?"

Al shook his head. He wanted to say "Ed, you're not yourself," but he was, he didn't seem off, it was Al who seemed off. Ed turned and indicated the stairs. "Bobby's covering us outside, let's get out of here.

"It's too easy," Al said.

"I know," Ed said, grinning.

They took the stairs two at a time and Al paused long enough to grab a drink from the faucet to wet his throat. They headed outside and as Ed crossed the threshold of the house all hell broke loose.

There were two demons on Bobby, one the man who Al had seen twice and the other he didn't recognize, but the one called Tucker grabbed papers from the inside of Bobby's coat pocket. 

Ed had the Colt in his hand so quickly any gunslinger worth his salt would have been proud. The demon holding Bobby back fell, a specially-made bullet between its eyes. 

The one named Tucker was no fool, he ran, the papers clenched tight. "The key," Sam said.

The demon was moving too quickly for Ed to get a bead on him. He turned instead and shot at the one running up on the porch, then tossed the gun to Sam and drew the knife from his boot, hopping over the railing and taking off after Tucker while Sam turned to dispatch another demon.

A white dog came tearing across the lawn at Ed. "Watch out!" Al shouted hoarsely and Ed turned, to be hit by the full weight of the dog mid-torso.

Ed hit the ground and rolled, the knife in his hand forced up between the jaws of the dog to keep the slavering jowls from his throat. He curled and kicked, throwing the demonic hound off of him. 

The dog flipped in midair and was already going for his throat a second time, launching himself at Ed as Ed staggered to his feet. Abruptly the dog was swatted out of midair by a shotgun blast from Bobby.

It didn't kill the demonic hound, it just turned its attention elsewhere. Ed hesitated, and Bobby shouted at him. "We can handle the damn dog, get that demon!"

Ed turned, the demon had doubled back and was heading back for the house. The Stone seemed to pulsate in his pocket and with horror Ed realized that the demon was reading the incantation aloud as he ran.

He put his head down and charged, sprinting like he'd never run before in his life. The demon couldn't run at top speed and read at the same time, and there was something foul and filthy about the fact that a demon was reading the language of angels aloud.

He wasn't going to catch him, even running slower than usual the demon was still faster than he was so Ed clapped as he ran and slammed his open hands onto the grass.

At first nothing happened. Then the ground itself moved. It undulated in a wave, and it caught the demon off guard, throwing him hard. Ed used the forward motion to propel himself through the air, knife clutched tight in his right hand.

Knocked off his feet, the demon had lost the pages to the ground. Ed brought the knife down but the demon caught his arm and twisted it, and Ed could hear the bone go. He screamed hoarsely as the demon threw him and he landed on his arm.

The demon aimed a kick at him and Ed twisted, entire body aflame with pain, and jammed the dagger through the top of the demon's boot. It sparked and the demon rocked back, exorcised and sent to hell in one solid motion. 

Ed staggered to his feet, cradling his right arm to his chest, the Stone still pulsating in his pocket. He kicked the body over, as Al and Bobby ran in his direction.

"Get the pages," Ed yelled hoarsely and turned to get them as Al ran over to him. 

"Ed, Ed are you all right-?!"

"I'll be fine, I've had worse," Ed gritted through his teeth. "I've got the Stone, Bobby's got the pages, let's get the hell out of here before Lilith herself shows up!"

Al heard the growling before the other two did and he swore, shoving Ed forwards. Ed staggered forward as Al met the demon dog head on. Using strength from somewhere Al slammed the dog down to the dirt, holding the Colt at the base of its skull and putting a bullet through its head.

The demon mutt flopped and laid still.

"Come on," Bobby said, stuffing torn pages back into his coat. "Let's /go/."

"No arguments here," Ed said as they booked it back in the direction of the Impala.

#

Ed slumped in the back seat, using his coat as a makeshift sling. Bobby drove, and Al sat in the passenger seat, greedily sucking down a bottle of water that had sat in the Impala for a few days.

"Are we just going to leave your friend off in the woods?" Bobby asked as they drove past where Ed had let the golem and Castiel out.

"I don't know which of them you're referring to, but yeah." Ed winced as he shifted, his arm moving at the same time. "I expect Cas has torched the golem by now, he'll realize the key is incomplete and come badger us for the rest of it whenever he feels like it." He put his left hand in his pocket, feeling the pulsing, warm power of the Stone at his side. "We've got the seal," he said confidentially.

"And with the key, they can't destroy it." Al looked mildly satisfied. "I think we did good this time, Ed."

"Something still doesn't seem right," Ed muttered. He frowned at Al, dusk had turned over and it was dark on the road. Al didn't look right again, it was like at the museum.

"What do you mean?" Al looked back at him and he looked like Al again, tired and a bit beat up but still Al.

"Dunno," Ed muttered. 

#

They were on the road for a good seven or eight hours before Bobby finally pulled off at a dinky roadside motel in the middle of nowhere. Ed had caught a few hours sleep in the back seat, his arm settled carefully across his chest.

"Is it broken?" Al asked, watching Ed move his arm gingerly.

Ed nodded, wincing, and took the handful of painkillers that Bobby offered him. "I heard it snap," he said, the pain evident in his voice.

"Christ, Ed, we should get you to a hospital," Bobby said. He was gingerly prodding the arm, noting Ed's intake of breath when he got near the break.

"Splint it," Ed said. "We got more important things to worry about."

Bobby looked at Al, who shrugged. Ed glowered at them both until they helped him splint the arm. "This is only short term," Al warned him. "As soon as we've got a good idea what's going on we're taking you to the hospital for a cast."

"Yeah yeah," Ed muttered, shifting cautiously and looking happier now that pain didn't set his entire arm on fire whenever he moved.

"So we've got the seal, and the key to the seal," Bobby said, flattening the pages out on the dresser and frowning at them. "The demon was reading them aloud, but he didn't finish, so that means the seal is safe, right?"

"I guess so," Ed frowned at it, wiggling so he could withdraw the curious warm Stone from his pocket. 

Al looked at Bobby, then took the Stone carefully from Ed. "So this is the seal?"

"Not only is it the Seal, but it's the Philosopher's Stone," Ed said, leaning forward in the chair. "I have no idea what the hell we need to do with it, either."

"/The/ Philosopher's Stone, the whole turn-lead-to-gold thing?" Al turned the stone over in his hands. "It's ... warm."

Ed was relieved that Al could feel it too. "Yeah, the very same."

Bobby held out his hand to take the Stone, and frowned at it, turning it over in his hands as well. He looked up at Al, slightly confused. "No, it's not warm at all. It feels like any other sort of rock." He tossed it back to Al, who frowned at it as well.

"It's warm to the touch, it's kinda like... dunno, it's just warm. And it glows faintly red."

Bobby looked between the two of them. "I don't see it OR feel it. Maybe you two have been cursed somehow?"

Ed shook his head. "I... I don't know, it doesn't seem dangerous or anything." Al handed the Stone back to him and Ed curled it in his hand, bringing it to his chest and tucking his chin down, eyes closed.

Al looked at Bobby, alarmed, and they both stepped forward as Ed opened his eyes and said "I don't know, it feels safe somehow. This is so strange."

Bobby shook his head. "I'm going to get some of the books out of the Impala, there's got to be more going on here than we know," he said. Al nodded and watched Ed settle contentedly with the Stone, drowsing off. 

#

When Ed woke several hours later, it was with a massive crick in his neck. His left hand throbbed, too warm and the pain in his right arm was dull and background.

Bobby was seated at the table itself, several books propped open, and Al was nowhere to be seen. Ed stretched carefully, popping his neck and looking around. "Where's Al?" he asked.

"Went to get something for us to eat," Bobby said, looking up. "Feel any better?"

"A little," Ed murmured. He deposited the Stone on the table and Bobby frowned at it. Ed looked at Bobby then back at the Stone. "What?"

"Is it.. it looks /smaller/."

Ed ran a hand over the Stone and realized Bobby was right. It was smaller, noticeably so. "I wonder what happened?"

"Dunno," Bobby shook his head, closing the book in front of him. "There's a lot of mumbo-jumbo surrounding the Philosopher's Stone - it boils down to the fact that nothing good goes in to the making of the Stone. There are all sorts of recipes for it, they all involve blood in some way or another."

"That doesn't surprise me, something so powerful would require powerful magic to create," Ed stood up and stretched his left arm over his head, then scratched his chin. "Wonder when Sam'll be back with something to eat, I'm starving."

He wandered into the bathroom, did a very awkward shuffle and took care of business one-handed.

When he finally maneuvered out of the bathroom, Al was back with some Chinese food. Ed looked at him, then looked at the chopsticks, then at Al again. "You hate me, don't you?"

Al rooted through the bag. "Man, I thought they put forks in here. I'm sorry, Ed!"

"My own little brother," Ed groaned. 

"Tomorrow we'll drive back to Anson, and pick up my car," Bobby said once they dished some food out and got Ed a fork from the lobby of the motel. "From there, well. This hunt is over, I gotta get back to the junkyard."

Ed nodded, scooping food into his mouth carefully. "I can't even drive my own car," he said mournfully.

Al grinned at him. "This means we can finally listen to some of my music for a change."

Ed swiveled and looked at Al, his eyes wide. Then he rolled his eyes heavenward melodramatically. "My ears are gonna fall off before the week is out!"

Al flicked a piece of chicken at Ed. "Oh, shut the hell /up/."

#

Neither of the brother particularly wanted to share a bed with Bobby, so they uncomfortably split the bed between them. "If you so much as put a foot over my side of the bed I'm going to break both your legs," Ed threatened Al.

"Whatever, we both know you're the covers hog anyway," Al said.

"That's it, I'm sleeping in the Impala," Ed said, sitting up.

"Oh for god's sake Ed, just go to /sleep/," Al grumbled.

Bobby rolled over on the other bed and put the pillow over his ears.

Ed laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. The Stone was sitting on the table, emitting a dull red light that reflected off of the other surfaces in the room. He watched it pulse from where he lay and tried to make sense of it. Why hadn't Castiel or Uriel come to claim the Stone from them, if it was the Seal after all? Castiel said he was always around, he didn't expect that leaving him in the woods would deter him from following.

Unless, of course, Castiel was still standing there with the immobile golem.

Ed rubbed his face with his left hand. A shadow passed between the warm glow of the Stone and Ed, and he looked up.

Castiel stood beside the table, looking down at the Stone but not touching it. Ed sat all the way up, swinging his legs out from under the covers. He glanced over at Al but his brother was conked completely out.

"Can you see it glow?" Ed asked Castiel.

The angel looked over at him, and looked very tired. "This isn't a seal," he said.

"What?" Ed stood up. "If it isn't a seal, what-"

"The golem itself was the seal," Castiel said. "The demons were as misdirected as we were and broke the seal without our knowledge, or their own." 

Ed felt like he had been punched in the gut. "So we lost this one too," he said. 

Castiel nodded his head once. "All this time, and those lives wasted just to find out the seal was broken before we had a chance to get to it."

"But then, what is with the Stone?" Ed asked. He reached out for it, and Castiel grabbed the back of his wrist and stopped him. 

"Your dreams," Castiel said. 

Ed stared at him, uncomprehending. "I... haven't had them lately."

"This Stone," Castiel said. "When it is gone, everything will end." He looked at it, and as Ed watched a small bit of it disintegrated. "The world will not, but..."

"Is this the source of the alchemy I've been using?" Ed asked.

"Yes."

Ed stared at it measuringly. "If it goes, then things will go back to normal, right? This isn't like, one of the signs of the apocalypse or anything." Castiel shook his head. 

"It isn't that simple, Dean. It never is."

Ed put his hand over the Stone. It was still warm but it fit more comfortably in his hand. "What's next?"

A flicker of something went across Castiel's face faster than Ed could interpret it. "My brothers have not located the next seal," he said. "We cannot afford another loss."

Ed nodded. He wasn't very keen on this whole 'hell on earth' thing either. Castiel looked at him again and shook his head once. "Be careful." He nodded at the Stone. "There is another one out there... someone else who is using the power of alchemy."

"What, that Doc Benton guy? We shoved him in a fridge."

Castiel looked at Ed and he shrugged. "We couldn't figure out how to kill him otherwise. I guess you mean someone else, then."

"He is in Mountain Grove." Castiel looked at Ed. "Go there. Deal with him, he is doing things even the ancient alchemists eschewed."

Ed nodded and picked up the Stone. When he looked back up Castiel was gone.