Well, onto chapter two! And we have Gabriel back ;)

Chapter Two

"Gabriel!" Sam and Cas both exclaimed at once as the archangel moved toward the stairs and clanked down them. Mom and Jack had joined them by now and were staring in shock at the new arrival.

"Is it really…?" Mom asked hesitantly, glancing toward Cas.

"Yes, it is," Cas replied and stepped forward as Gabriel reached the floor, instantly pulling his brother into a firm embrace.

Gabriel gave a soft grunt, patting Cas on the back. "Oof, easy little bro, still not a hundred percent here."

Cas pushed him backwards with a frown, though still held his shoulders. "But…how are you here? Sam and Dean said…"

"Yeah, yeah, they saw me get stabbed in the heart. Remember how that took last time, Samsquatch?" Gabriel cocked an eyebrow, but rubbed at his chest with a cringe. "Unfortunately, since I'm not exactly on the top of my game right now making a fake was out of the question, so I had to take one for the team."

"Then how are you alive?" Sam demanded. "That was the archangel blade!"

"Or was it?" Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows. "I may not be able to throw out an illusion right now, but I can still switch out a dagger. That just takes a little slight of hand." He wiggled his fingers with a smirk. "Plus my superb acting skills. Still blacked out for a bit there though, woke up just as another rift was closing and dove through. Had to find a place to heal before I could make it back here. I'm guessing Michael and Lucifer got through."

Gabriel glanced around at them and Sam knew he wasn't able to hide his expression. Cas glanced at him and then turned back to Gabriel who seemed to have picked up on the tension in the room. He frowned, and zeroed in on Jack.

"Hold on, what's up with the kid?" he asked as Mom moved closer to Jack and settled a hand on his back. "And where's Dean, anyway?"

Sam took a deep breath. "You're a little late for the fight," was all he managed to say.

Gabriel frowned. "So it's…already over? Come on then, spill. What happened?"

"Lucifer is dead," Sam said, and hell, saying that out loud would never get old. "But Michael's still out there," Cas added, glancing at Sam. "We've got a lot to talk about."

They moved to the kitchen to inform Gabriel about everything that had happened, though none of them had much of an appetite anymore. Except Gabriel that is, who found what was left of a half-gallon of ice cream in the freezer and began to shovel it into his mouth.

"You know, if you bozos ever come out of a fight without any repercussions I think the world actually would end," Gabriel snarked, pointing his spoon at Sam. "I know at one point I was all for Dean saying yes to Michael, but I've gotten over that. Especially when we're talking about an alternate Mad Max universe version who's even more of a genocidal maniac."

"Look, we know this is bad," Cas cut in. "What we need is a way to get Michael out of Dean."

"But we have to find him first," Sam added, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"Well, I can probably track him down," Gabriel said. "That's gonna be the easy part. Finding a way to get the assmonkey out of your brother though...that's gonna be a whole other can of worms."

"What if…Cas, when I was possessed by Gadreel, you were able to clue me in and I was able to force Michael out," Sam said.

Cas sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Sam, Crowley was able to go in, like he did with me when I was possessed by Lucifer because he didn't need permission. Now we don't have that option, and I don't think there's going to be another demon willing to help us. Besides, Dean knows he's possessed, it's obviously a problem with him being unable to evict Michael at all, otherwise, he would have done it when you said he was fighting against Michael back at that church."

Sam sighed but nodded in agreement. "Okay, but, I was able to fight Lucifer's hold at Stull Cemetery. It was hard, like, nearly impossible, but I was able to do it. And Dean…if anyone has a chance, he does. So if he couldn't fight him off already, then…what?"

Gabriel set the empty ice cream carton aside. "Look from what I know about this alternate universe Michael, he's just like ours, but even more of a dick. Which means, he's gonna have his claws deep in Dean."

"Which means?" Mom asked.

Gabriel pursed his lips grimly. "Which means that Mike has probably made safeguards so that Dean can't just eject him."

"Is that even possible, for an angel to do that?" Sam asked.

"It's not easy, but it's not impossible either," Gabriel told him.

Cas heaved a weary sigh. "Then what do we do? If Michael has Dean trapped in there…Dean will make trouble for him, and Michael doesn't necessarily need him to occupy his body now that he has consent."

Sam's stomach turned sharply at Cas' words, but he knew the angel was right. He saw Mom's hands clench against the tabletop, her mouth parted in horror.

Gabriel nodded. "Exactly why we need to find them sooner rather than later." He reached into his jacket. "And if all else fails…we can trick Michael into leaving a dying vessel." He pulled out the archangel blade and put it in the middle of the table like a death knell.

Sam clenched his jaw and looked away.

"You can't be serious?" Mom demanded.

"Gabriel…" Cas started, but Sam cut him off.

"No, he's right," he said, swallowing hard. He hated it, he really did, but if it was their only shot… "It's our last resort, though, not the first. We'll find another way."

Jack, who had been silent up to that point, suddenly pushed away from the table. "I'm going to bed," he said softly and nearly ran from the room.

The hunters and the angels all shared long looks. Gabriel cautiously cocked his head toward the door.

"Is the kid okay?" he asked.

"No," Cas replied with a long sigh. "None of us, are." He stood, turning to Sam and Mom. "You two should get some rest while you can. Gabriel and I will search through the archives, see if there's anything that can help us get Dean back."

Sam wanted to protest, he knew he wasn't going to sleep that night, but at the same time, he knew Cas was right. Running himself into the ground was not going to help Dean at all.

"Alright," Sam sighed heavily, running a hand over his eyes. "But if you dig anything up, let me know."

"We will," Cas assured him, giving him one last pained look before Sam slipped away from the table, making sure his mom was doing the same before he followed her to the dormitory ward.

He went first to take a shower, and when he had finished, he passed Jack's room on the way to his own, and stopped at the door. He hesitated a moment before he gripped the doorknob and opened it quietly. He half expected Jack to be awake, but was surprised to see the boy actually asleep, curled into a ball on his side.

Sam went to exit the room quietly, but as he began to close the door, Jack twitched and whimpered, hands fisting in the sheets.

"N-no!" he mumbled. "Father, don't please! Stop!"

Sam hurried into the room and settled a hand on Jack's shoulder, rubbing gently. "Jack, easy, easy, you're safe. Lucifer's gone."

Jack didn't wake up, but he did seem to calm slightly. Sam gently brushed his hair back before straightening up again, and pulling the blanket further over Jack's shoulders. He bit his lip, and finally turned toward the door, leaving it slightly ajar. He hurried to his room and sank down onto the foot of his bed, burying his face in his hands as he took a shuddering breath.

It seemed like years ago now that he and Dean had discussed the possibility of retirement. Sam had seen the longing on his brother's face, and hell, he wouldn't say no, if, as Dean said, they knew the world was safe. And now look what had happened. The world was on the brink of coming to an end again, the youngest member of their family was falling apart, and Sam had lost his brother again.

Why did everything always have to fall apart just when things seemed like they were getting better again?


Michael stood bare-chested in front of the mirror in the motel bathroom. The place was a squalid human dump, the kind he saw frequently in Dean Winchester's memories—those the hunter hadn't locked away from him, anyway. The human hunter had led a pitiable life, for that matter. Just one hunt after another, followed by excessive drinking and sex with countless women of no consequence. If anything, Michael was doing him a favor.

He raised the blade to his chest, on the opposite side of where Dean's anti-possession tattoo was and began to carve the sigil into his vessel's flesh. It stung a little because he used the archangel blade, but it would assure that Sam Winchester and his friends wouldn't be able to pull him from Dean's body.

Michael smirked to himself in the mirror as he finished and the sigil healed, becoming a fresh scar. He turned to grab a crisp dress shirt that he had purchased along with a much more elegant wardrobe than the hunter had possessed and began to dress. He had a lot of work to do.

Starting with a visit to Heaven.

Back in his world, Heaven had been a distant memory. A long forgotten relic of a bygone era after the war when he had his men had made permanent camp on earth to better subjugate the humans and keep them in line. From what Lucifer had told him, the Heaven here wasn't much to write home about anymore either, but a few more followers to do his bidding would not go awry.

Once he finished dressing, he turned inward and strode toward the small pocket room he had locked Dean away in. The hunter was still chained, but he glared up at Michael defiantly when he entered.

"What do you want?" Dean demanded, pulling himself into a more upright position.

Michael stopped right in front of him, folding his arms over his chest. "I want to know where the portal to Heaven is."

Dean snorted. "Look, not that I give a crap about those flying dicks, but I'm not gonna be the one to lead you to killing the last angels alive. Going to Hell on the other hand, well, that you can do."

Michael shot a hand forward and took Dean around the throat, raising him up so that his chains pulled taught and wrenched his arms behind him. "Do not labor under the delusion that I am playing games. The only reason I have left you alive is because you have useful information. But the second I decide you're too much trouble, I will find a more permanent way to deal with you, and turn to one of your companions for the information I seek. Perhaps your brother or your pet angel would be more forthcoming."

Dean glowered at him even as Michael choked him out. "I said…" Dean grunted. "You can go. To. Hell."

Michael sneered and threw the Winchester back against the wall. Dean collapsed on his side with a rattle of chains and Michael stepped forward, keeping him down with a boot shoved into his ribs.

"Your form here might be an illusion that your human mind creates to make sense of your current incorporeality. However…" He slammed his foot down and there was the delicious sound of snapping ribs. Dean released a breathless scream. "The pain is real."

Dean still glowered at him, even though he was wheezing from the pain. "You're gonna…have to do…a lot worse to…get me to…talk."

"Or I can skip that part," Michael said, crouching down and reaching out to grip a fist of Dean's hair, yanking his head back. "I can always take what I want by force. You belong to me now, and you're good at locking away your memories, especially the ones you don't want me to see, but I can find them all the same." Michael shifted his hands so both were gripping the sides of Dean's head, seeing the human's eyes widen with just a little fear. "Just a warning…it's gonna hurt."

He closed his eyes and shoved inside Dean's mind. The human let out a scream of pure agony. He fought against the intrusion, but Michael was far stronger and tore down his defenses almost instantly. He rooted through pointless memories until he found the one he wanted. A children's playground. Sigils in the sandbox. A bright light…

Michael pulled back and released Dean before he stood. The hunter collapsed with a thud on the ground, completely unconscious. Good. He'd been driving Michael insane with his incessant scratching. It would be so much easier to deal with his meeting with the angels if he didn't have Dean buzzing like a gnat in the back of his mind.

He left the room and resurfaced in the vessel, still standing in front of the mirror. He checked his new suit, stowed his blade up his sleeve and then left the dingy motel to head to the portal to Heaven.


Castiel sighed heavily as he sat down with another large volume, dropping the book onto the table. Their options did not look good, considering it had taken Sam and Dean a long time to find that exorcism for when Lucifer was possessing him and it still hadn't worked and it wasn't just because he hadn't been willing to eject Lucifer at that moment.

"Cas, you know that we won't really know what we're doing until we see what kind of hold Michael has over him," Gabriel said, looking up from the Men of Letters file he was flipping through.

"I know," Cas said sharply, and stopped to rub a hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I…I should have done more to stop him. I could have…I could have let Michael use me instead."

Gabriel stared at him blandly. "You really think Dean would have let you do that after the whole Lucifer debacle I heard about? And Michael never would have agreed to that, not when his true vessel was standing right there. If anything, he probably would have burned through you on purpose just so Dean wouldn't have another choice. Remember, this wasn't Lucifer after years languishing in the cage, this was alternate Michael who's stronger than any archangel I've seen since before the apocalypse."

"I know, I just…" Cas sighed again and clenched his hands on the tabletop. "I just feel like I can't save anyone anymore. Not Sam back in that cave, not Dean, and not even Jack from his own father."

Gabriel cast a sympathetic look over at him. "You know what, little bro, I think you're too hard on yourself. Yeah, you may not be as powerful as you once were, but it looks like we're both in that boat now." He bit his lip, glancing down as his own hands tightened into fists. "At least you were here fighting while I was either running or being tortured by a Prince of Hell."

Castiel leaned back in his chair, closing the book in front of him as it offered nothing of use. "Gabriel," he said after a long moment. "Jack…is there any of his grace left? I truly couldn't tell."

Gabriel twisted his mouth up. "Honestly? I can't tell either. But if Lucifer took it all, and he probably did, because he never does anything by halves, then there's no way of getting it back now that he's dead."

Castiel looked down at the table, throat tightening with emotion. "That's what I thought."

"Hey, the kid's gonna be okay. He's got a lot of people looking out for him. And for the record, you'll be a hell of a better father than Lucifer. Besides, the kid chose you first. That has to mean something."

Castiel tried to be encouraged by that, but truthfully it just made him feel worse inside. He couldn't help but feel that he had failed Jack by not being more truthful about what Lucifer was actually like. He had just barged in, refusing Jack access to his father without explanation. He and the Winchesters had dealt with the archangel and his evil, manipulative nature for so long, perhaps they just assumed everyone felt the same way as they did. Of course, Jack was so innocent, so young. Castiel forgot that a lot of times, and it had nearly cost him the boy altogether. And it had cost Jack his powers. He recalled the Winchesters showing up before Jack was born, trying to convince Kelly that they could take away Jack's powers while he was still in the womb, avoid the danger of whatever he would become. How Kelly had protested that. Now they had been taken by the boy's own father, and Castiel felt like he had failed both Kelly and Jack. He was supposed to be the boy's protector, and so far all he had done was get himself killed so he couldn't be there at Jack's birth, lose the boy in an alternate dimension and stand by helplessly while Lucifer cut his grace out. What kind of father did that make him?

Castiel looked at a clock on the wall, seeing it was nearly six a.m. Sam and Mary would certainly be awake soon. Perhaps they would have more ideas of where to look for something that would help Dean.

Castiel stood and went to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee but he was pulled aside by the soft sound of crying coming from the dormitory wing.

Castiel hesitated only a moment before he changed course, and stopped at a door which was ajar, seeing it was Jack's room. As he glanced inside, he saw the boy curled on the bed, sobbing.

Part of Castiel thought he should leave, that Jack couldn't possibly want him there, but something kept him moving forward to the bedside. He just couldn't stand the thought of leaving the boy in such distress.

"Jack," he said softly as he sat on the side of the bed and reached out to touch his shoulder.

The boy instantly surged upright and latched onto Castiel's coat, burying his face in his chest. Castiel sat stunned for a moment before folding his arms around the boy.

"I'm sorry," Jack sobbed. "I'm sorry for everything!"

"Oh, Jack," Castiel sighed reaching up one hand to stroke through the boy's hair. "Nothing was your fault. I'm the one who's sorry."

It was a long moment before the sobs turned to sniffles and Jack finally pushed back, rubbing his face on his sleeve and looking down almost sheepishly.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I don't…I don't know how to feel…I don't know what I'm feeling."

Castiel smiled gently and cupped Jack's cheek with one hand. "I know it's hard; emotions, feelings…they can be confusing. But we're all here for you, Jack, and that's all you have to remember right now."

He sniffed again and finally met Castiel's eyes. "Thank you…for being here for me."

Castiel smiled. "I will always look out for you, Jack."

Jack seemed to relax a bit, and leaned forward again to slump against Castiel. The angel simply sat there, holding his charge in a comforting embrace, and thought that perhaps Jack didn't see him as a complete failure after all.

He heard another door open and close and knew Sam would be up now. He gently pushed Jack back and stood up.

"Come on. You could probably use some breakfast, and we have a lot of work to do."