It was supposed to be a normal night.
A normal night after a hunt with some beer, and some bad motel television followed by much needed and pined for sleep.
So it was a complete surprise for both Sam and Dean when Gabriel burst through the window, weapons in hand and blood on his face. Sam was the first to react, jumping up in surprise.
"Gabriel?"
Dean had been closer to the window and was hit with flying shards of glass.
"Sam, Dean. There's no time to explain, we have to-"
There was a huge gust of wind and the rest of the windows shattered. In the midst of the mess, three gloomy figures stood there, towering over Gabriel and the Winchesters.
The three figures raised their hands together, creating a glowing blue light.
"You can't have them," Gabriel shouted, putting his hands on Dean and Sam's shoulders.
"Brace yourselves," he whispered to them, porting them away just as the blue light erupted.
"What was that?" Dean shouted as he recovered from the fall. Gabriel had taken them - not swiftly at all - to some unidentified building for a yet to be identified reason. He'd miscalculated their landing, and zapped them there three feet above the ground.
Sam stood up, cracking his neck side to side and then holding out a hand for Gabriel, who almost seemed too weak to do it himself.
"And how the hell are you alive?" Sam asked, gripping Gabriel's hand tight to make sure that Gabriel was actually there.
"Listen guys, it's a long story-"
"Then shorten it," Dean growled.
Gabriel ran his hand through his hair and then sighed. "When I was killed by my brother, the archangel in me died. Little did I know... I've been living long enough as a Trickster that it's become a part of who I am. Even though the archangel is dead half is dead... well I'm still here."
Sam and Dean made eye contact, both of their foreheads creasing as they processed the information.
"How long have you been around for?"
Gabriel thought about it for a moment. "Well I woke up shortly after I was killed, lying alive between my wings."
Dean's mouth practically fell open. "Are you telling me you've been messing around for the past few years and you didn't think it might have been important to, I don't know? Tell us?"
"Hey," Gabriel said, pointing his finger. "I didn't come back full blast, alright? I had to regain my strength, and yes it took a while."
"Are you at full strength now?" Sam asked, the calmest of the three in the room.
Gabriel shook his head. "No. Almost, but no. I was laying low for a while. Coming to see you two would be one of the stupidest things I could do. You two are like magnets - something would find me and I wouldn't be ready. And well, other than you two there's no one I would go see anyway."
"So why the change of plans? I'm assuming those guys back there had something to do with it," Sam commented, looking around the room quickly to make sure their visitors from before weren't hiding in any corners.
"When I lived, I broke some rules. Your not really supposed to, how do I put it, be two conscious creatures in one. The things back there you saw? I'm guessing they are the consequences of what happened." He paused and looked around like Sam had, reassuring himself that they weren't being stalked. "They found me a month ago and I've been trying to avoid them ever since, looking for some way to get rid of them. So far I haven't found any... but running away has been pretty effective so far. Last time they came to see me though, they told me they were going to come and find you next time I ran."
"So you zapped into our motel and grabbed us," Dean said, running his hand over his jaw. "And now they're hunting us. Great. What's the plan now?"
Gabriel shrugged. "I don't really have one."
Sam frowned and almost spoke, but Gabriel just held up his hand and stopped him.
"I do have an idea though, it's just not concrete. I'm pretty sure they are trying to send me into an alternate world, or something like that, where I'll be powerless. They can't necessarily kill me unless they stake me, like you would with a proper trickster, but what you guys probably didn't notice is that they don't have hands. They just have stumps that they use to create their sickly blue flames. I've looked as far into the matter as possible and all I can tell is the flames are almost like a portal."
"They want to punish you."
"Basically."
"So what's the idea then?" Dean asked, hoping to speed this conversation along.
"A counter spell. If I have full power, I should be able to reverse what they are trying to do, which should kill them in the process."
Sam clapped his hands together. "Alright, well how long until you have full power?"
"More importantly how long do we have until they come back?" Dean asked.
"To answer both of your questions... I have no idea."
"Perfect. Just perfect," Dean said, frustrated.
"You really want to talk to the guy who saved your asses like that?"
"In the process of saving our asses that guy also confirmed our deaths."
"I have plan!"
"That might not work!"
"Enough!" Sam shouted, silencing his brother and the trickster. "We were dead anyway," he said, directing that comment at Dean. "And guys, we are all a part of this now so can we not fight."
Dean and Gabriel both had an annoyed look on their faces but neither of them said anything.
"Okay I guess that-"
"Uh guys?" Dean said, slapping his hand on Sam's chest. "We have company."
The three of them stared across the large, empty room at the three ghostly figures they'd encountered before.
"Crap," Gabriel muttered. "We have to leave." He put his hands on Dean and Sam's shoulder and they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Except for Sam.
Sam looked around, expecting to see a new environment, but instead was welcomed by the exact same scene he was in before.
The three figures were walking slowly towards him, raising their hands together as blue flames were swelling to life.
Sam could see now that Gabriel was right, and they didn't have any hands - just stumps. He was also pretty sure they had no faces beneath their ragged hoods that dropped down to their necks.
"Gabriel?" he called out, looking around, as he was backed up against the wall. "Gabriel!"
His shouts rendered no results.
"Where's Sam," Dean demanded immediately as they stumbled into their new location.
Gabriel glanced around the room, "Oh God," he muttered as he slowly realized what was happening.
"Where's Sam," Dean shouted again, leaping up from the ground and practically pouncing on Gabriel.
Gabriel pushed back Dean, but he was weak. Dean could tell he was weak. "I'm not used to this much activity in one day. It's hard enough trying to take three bodies at a time... but to have to do it more than once-"
"Go back and get him," Dean growled.
"Dean, he might already be dead."
"No. You brought us into this mess you go back and get him."
Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair. "Fine. But if we don't return, we're probably dead."
"Gabriel wait," Dean said, squeezing Gabriel's arm hard. "Can you attempt the counter spell?"
"Maybe."
"And Gabriel-"
But Gabriel was already gone, leaving Dean to wait by himself.
Bullets didn't have any impact on the figures, Sam had figured out.
He was sure he was about to die, when suddenly Gabriel appeared in front of him.
"Gabriel!" Sam yelled, confused, relieved and worried all at once.
"I'm going to try the spell," Gabriel said loudly. They needed to raise their voices or else the other wouldn't be able to hear. As the figures were getting closer, there was a sharp buzzing and the walls around them had started to crumble, loud crashes echoing around the large room.
"What? But you aren't powerful enough are you?"
"I won't be able to get both of us out of here, so this is the only option I have."
Sam suddenly understood what had happened when Gabriel and Dean had disappeared. Gabriel obviously wasn't powerful enough to bring all three, and with the added stress on his abilities with getting himself back to Sam was too much. The spell would be weak but it was the only way they'd have any chance of living.
"Do it," Sam yelled.
"Hold onto me and close your eyes or you'll die."
Sam didn't question it, and just did what he was told, getting behind Gabriel and holding onto the trickster's chest, burying his head down so that he wouldn't be exposed to the light.
Gabriel muttered something under his breath and held his hands up.
"I'm ready now, bitches," he muttered, just as the blue flames were released and shot at Sam and Gabriel. Gabriel's eyes glowed green as his own spell took place and pushed away the blue.
He could feel all of his powers being drained away as he tried so hard to push away the blue portal. There was an explosion as Gabriel's abilities finally gave out and every ounce of his energy escaped him. It was the final push of his power that collided with the flames, causing Gabriel and Sam's bodies to be thrown up into the air, and then down directly into the flames beneath.
Everything went black.