Sam found himself in a basement shackled to to a wall, beaten and bloody. He wasn't sure how long he'd been there, days at least. Once Tim and Reggie got the drop on him after they tried to force demon blood down his throat, they decided on a new game. Instead of forcing him to drink and waste a bunch of demons, they decided to torture him to the brink for being the cause of everything that went wrong. So far he'd been beaten to the point that he was sure he had several cracked ribs, a broken wrist, a broken leg, as well as been stabbed, though not bad enough to kill him, in several places.

Sam was at the point where he was wishing for death. Everything hurt so bad and he knew it wasn't over. These men weren't going to stop until they completely broke him, and he really couldn't blame them. After starting the apocalypse, he felt he deserved what they did to him. But he couldn't take it anymore. He just wanted it to end.

Just then, Sam was assaulted by light as the door was opened and Tim and Reggie both walked. "Hey, there, Sam. Ready for some fun?" Tim asked with an evil smirk.

Sam cringed but didn't speak. No matter how much he wanted to beg for this to stop, he wouldn't do it. All it would do was egg them on even more anyway. He wouldn't get mercy from these men.

Within seconds, both men roughly pulled him up and started beating the crap out of Sam. Sam did his best not to scream, but like every other time this happened, it lasted mere moments.

After at least a good five ten minutes, Sam was allowed to fall to the ground. He didn't delude himself into thinking it was over, especially with the evil glints in eyes of both men. He got the feeling this time was going to be even worse than all the others.

Tim knelt down beside Sam and took a flask out of his pocket. "We've got a special surprise for you today. You know what this is?" he asked, indicating the flask.

Sam gulped and screwed his mouth shut. He could only bet it was demon blood. They were gonna try to get him to drink again.

Tim seemed to guess what Sam was thinking because he laughed. "No, not that. This is acid with a little hint of holy oil."

Sam felt his stomach drop. He didn't want to think about all the horrible things they could do with such a concoction.

"You're probably wondering about the holy oil. What could that do to you? Nothing really, but I hear you and that brother of your like to hang around with angels, though why angels would want anything to do with someone like you is beyond me. Anyway, we did some research, talked to some demons, and learned holy oil is kind of a weakness to angels. I'm thinking that when I pour this over your eyes, they won't be able to heal you later," he said cruelly.

Upon hearing what they were gonna do, Sam found a new sense of strength and started struggling in his bounds. Not that it helped much, especially because seconds later, Reggie came and held him down, forcing he to lay there helplessly as Tim forced his eyes wide open and poured the liquid over them.

Sam screamed louder than he ever had in his entire life. Then he did the only thing he could think of. He prayed."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Gabriel had heard Sam Winchester's prayer loud and clear. He didn't know why he decided to answer it. He had no reason to answer a prayer from the man who foolishly refused to heed his warning and helped start the end of the world. But he did. He went to Sam and what he saw shook him. The kid was on the ground while two men were torturing him for kicks.

Gabriel saw red in that moment. He'd seen some horrific things from humans and each time, he took great pleasure in punishing them in the most ironic and deserving way possible, but nothing he'd seen made him more angry or horrified than this did. He yanked both men up and away from their hostage.

"Who the hell are you?" one asked.

Too furious to answer or even get adequate revenge, like he would when he went around as Loki, He brought a hand to each man's forehead and smote them both instantly, not stopping until their eyes were completely burnt out.

Gabriel immediately went over to Sam and knelt down beside him.

"Who's there?" Sam asked in a pained voice. The pain was excruciating, but he knew someone was there, as he'd heard the screams of his tormentors, and he needed to find out what had caused them and what it might do to him.

"It's okay, kid. I'm gonna fix you up," Gabriel said softly before placing a finger on the shackles and watching them dissolve like they'd never even been there.

Sam recognized the voice, but he was in too much pain to even attempt to place it.

Gabriel got right to work healing Sam's injuries. He got the broken bones, lacerations and bruises with no problem, but as soon as he tried to heal his eyes, he found he couldn't. He used a small amount of his Grace to try to find out why. The answer came immediately. Holy oil was used to cause this injury. There was nothing he or any other angel could do about it. "No! No, oh, Dad, don't do this to me!"

"What's… going on?" Sam stuttered through the pain.

"I'm sorry, Sammy," Gabriel whispered. It wasn't right. Gabriel may have been annoyed at the asinine choices Sam and his brother had made recently, but the man didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be blinded by a couple of psychos for something he was essentially manipulated into doing.

"Oh, God, it hurts so much," Sam groaned.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and teleported the two of them back to his place, putting Sam in his bed. He couldn't heal Sam, but he could give him a comfortable place to rest and hopefully ease some of his pain.

Sam immediately felt himself laying on a soft comfortable surface instead of the cold, hard basement floor. "Where am I?"

"Hang on," Gabriel said before placing a hand over Sam's eyes and focussing on pain relief. "Does that feel any better?"

"Yes. Thank you," Sam moaned. It still hurt, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was before.

"Okay, you need to sleep."

"Wait, who are you? Are you an angel?" Sam asked. He guessed the man was, only because he prayed. Although, he wasn't sure why any angel other than Cas would come to him.

"Later," Gabriel said before placing two fingers on Sam's forehead, instantly putting the man to sleep.