General A/N: I'm posting this story as a WIP. I therefore make no promises as to the speed or frequency of updates. Reviews may help prod the muse—but I'll be finishing it eventually regardless, so please don't think I'm trying to hold the story hostage! RL is just enough of a bear that updates may take a while.

Many thanks to my wonderful betas, jennytork and ansostuff!

Chapter A/N: This prologue is a missing scene from "For Love Is Strong as Death." If you haven't read the Tok'ra Apocalypse trilogy before, I recommend that you do so before moving on to the rest of this story, since I won't be reviewing all of its events here.

Stole Soul Picnic
By San Antonio Rose

Prologue
The New Sheriffs

May 2010

Dean Winchester and his Tok'ra symbiote Dishon were settled in Cicero, Indiana, with Lisa Braeden and her son Ben. Sam Winchester and his symbiote Salim were locked in Lucifer's Cage after besting both Lucifer and Michael, and they had forbidden any attempt at rescue, intending instead to make their own way out of Hell by the safest route. Bobby Singer was well and back in the swing of hunting, and Homeworld Command had gone back to its normal routines.

The Apocalypse was thwarted. And the angels Gabriel and Castiel had little left to do on Earth.

Finally, after checking the wards at Cheyenne Mountain one last time, Gabriel turned to Castiel with a sigh. "C'mon, little brother. Guess it's time to face the music, head Home."

Castiel grimaced. "Must we? Raphael and I didn't part on good terms when last we met."

"Yeah, and the time before that, he exploded you. But we need to go make sure he doesn't get any stupid ideas about trying to restart the war."

"You think he might?"

"Let's just say I'll be pleasantly surprised if I don't have to knock some sense into him."

Castiel heaved a heavy sigh. Gabriel grabbed him gently by the back of the neck, gave it a sympathetic squeeze, and flew both of them back to Heaven.

Sure enough, they arrived just as Raphael was beginning an address to the Host. "The humans have succeeded in returning Lucifer to his Cage," he was saying as Gabriel stopped to lounge in the doorway of the illusory hall where the meeting was taking place and motioned for Castiel to do likewise, "but that should be seen only as a temporary setback. As soon as is reasonable, we need to retrieve at least Michael, if not Lucifer, so that the battle can be fought as it was foretold. This is Our Father's will."

The other angels bowed their heads in acknowledgment, some more reluctantly than others, but Gabriel called, "What in all eternity makes you think that, Rapha?"

The angels' surprise was palpable as they turned to look at the latecomers. Even Raphael looked startled as he replied, "Gabriel! Castiel! I thought—I feared—"

"I'm not dead yet. And baby brother here's not dead... again. You didn't answer my question."

"Why would it not be Father's will? I want it."

"Kid, did you ever stop to think that if Dad really wanted this to play out according to this cockeyed prophecy, it would not have taken the combined efforts of Heaven and Hell to drive the Winchesters apart, and Sam would never have been able to overpower Luci? Never mind allowing Mike to get pulled in with him!"

Raphael scowled. "You've grown irreverent, brother."

"Ad hominem. Or in this case, ad angelum. Try again."

"You believed once."

"Oh, I still believe Dad. But as much as I want the fighting to stop, Sam and Dean made me realize this ain't the way, not Dad's way. We're supposed to serve humans, Rapha, not kill them off like they're some kind of pest just because they're sinful. It's not like we're perfect."

"You would let wickedness go unpunished?"

"Hellooo? Agent of poetic justice, here! Aren't you the one who's supposed to be interested in healing?" Gabriel was trying to keep his quick temper in check, but he wasn't sure how long he'd succeed.

Raphael's jaw twitched—a very human gesture of annoyance that he evidently wasn't aware he'd picked up from his vessel. Then he turned his scowl on Castiel, who wasn't leaning against the doorframe like Gabriel but was still clearly standing with him. "And you, Castiel? Do you deny that this plan is Father's will? You cannot have forgotten the last time you openly defied the Host."

Castiel's wings—four of them now—flared out in anger, though his face and voice remained calm. "You are not the arbiter of right and wrong, Raphael. Father is. We were wrong to treat the Winchesters as we did, and you and Michael were wrong to use Anna against them and to coerce me into releasing Sam to kill Lilith. The world must end someday, but it must end in Father's time, and it will not end at the hands of Sam and Dean. If we act without Father's blessing, Lucifer is stronger than any of us, even Michael... and though he did not mean to, Zachariah proved to me that we cannot defeat Lucifer this way. Many will suffer, brother, humans killed by disaster and war or turned by Lucifer's virus, angels killed by Lucifer or dispirited by defeat—some dispirited enough to fall and join him, others at best relegated to a life of human suffering we do not know how to bear with human grace."

Raphael's scowl turned into a puzzled frown. "When did Zachariah do this?"

"Some months ago, he showed Dean the state of the world in 2014 if he kept his distance from both Sam and Michael. Dean didn't confide much to me, but there were times that I sought to speak with him in his dreams and happened upon a nightmare of those memories."

"What virus do you speak of?"

Castiel explained about Croatoan, giving as vivid a description as he could of its effects. He didn't reveal that the medical team in Atlantis had devised a vaccine, in part because it would undermine his point, but mostly because there was no guarantee that it could be manufactured and distributed quickly enough should Lucifer return and restore Pestilence to his full strength.

There was a long silence after he finished. Then a junior angel left his place in the assembly and walked back to stand beside Castiel.

Raphael blinked. "Balthazar?"

"You lot do what you want," Balthazar replied, sounding surprisingly like his British vessel. "As for me, I'm going to follow my dear friend and the Messenger, both of whom seem to be on Father's good side, rather than some ridiculous scheme that's stunk like Lucifer to me from the start. I mean, if this were destiny, would we have had to resort to time travel to get the pieces into place?"

At that, an angel whose vessel was a blonde woman slipped out of her place and strode back to join the other three. "I don't claim to understand," she said, "but I trust my brother Castiel. If he is following Gabriel, I will do the same."

Castiel smiled gently at her. "Thank you, Rachel."

More angels followed, first singly, then two and three and ten at a time, until roughly half of the Host had clearly chosen to side with Gabriel and Castiel. Those who remained or edged closer to Raphael—many of them among the upper echelons of Heaven—looked at one another nervously, unsure whether to believe that Gabriel actually had a point or to cling to this plan in which they had, possibly wrongly, invested so much time and effort.

Raphael, on the other hand, just looked confused at this unusual show of defiance. Finally, clearly lost for another way to try to win back support from Gabriel short of open civil war, he called, "Will someone go get Joshua?"

"There's no need," the gardener angel replied, appearing at one side of the hall between the two factions. "I've just heard from Father."

Raphael was visibly shocked, but he hid it swiftly. "And?"

"He asked you to consider what it was that gave Sam the power to overcome Lucifer, which no human should have been able to do."

Raphael shook his head in confusion, but Gabriel replied, "Love."

Joshua nodded. "That's right. Dean's love for Sam, refusing to let him die alone. Sam's love for Dean, refusing to let Lucifer beat him to death. Lucifer didn't understand that. I'm not sure Michael did, either. Do we?"

Gabriel ached to his very grace. Even Lucifer had seemed reluctant to kill him, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his brothers and sisters treat each other the way Sam and Dean had those last few months. The world called them codependent, but if one looked past the unhealthy shape their upbringing had given their relationship, weren't there virtues there that the Host could learn from?

Raphael looked lost, but he did eventually make eye contact with Gabriel.

"Please, bro," Gabriel pleaded quietly. "Stop the fighting."

Raphael huffed with a small, sad smile. "You, who bear Father's might, want nothing more than to end our strife."

"I'll bring Dad's might down on your head if I have to, Rapha. Don't make me do that."

Raphael wavered for another long moment before he sighed. "No. You are the Messenger, the elder, and the stronger. I will yield."

Any disappointment the most hardened of Raphael's followers might have felt was drowned in the wave of relief that rippled from the rest of the Host like a silent sigh. Gabriel grinned at Castiel, then snapped his fingers, and a box of assorted chocolates adorned with a cheekily grinning 'cherub' appeared in Raphael's hand.

Raphael blinked and looked down at it in confusion. "What is this?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Peace offering."

"But why this?"

Gabriel was pleasantly surprised to hear Castiel answer, "Dean says life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get."

Gabriel couldn't help it. He laughed for a solid Earth minute.