Thank you to everyone that's read/reviewed/favorited this story. Hopefully this chapter is just as good! Also, just an FYI, I didn't see anything about what Cas is driving anymore, only that the truck he had was missing. However, he did recover his pimpmobile after Metatron stole it so I'm using it here.
Chapter 2
Gabriel's first thought when he saw Castiel's ride was that Cas owned a pimpmobile. The second thought was just how many girls he could have put into the back seat. Not that he figured that the younger angel would like to hear that. He'd be surprised if Dean hadn't mentioned something to that effect before.
Nevertheless, when they pulled into a seemingly abandoned park, Gabriel was practically antsy with nerves. Sure, Heaven needed an archangel, and Gabriel, though he'd been gone for so long, was willing to help as much as he could. That didn't mean that the maybe dozen angels still around would appreciate his help. Some might, but not all. He was the one that had abandoned his family for so long.
Castiel didn't seem to be bothered by Gabriel's constant shifting. Either that or he was used to it and really good at putting up a front. In any case, from what his brother had told him, there was one person currently in charge they needed to talk to. Considering the way that Castiel seemed to mention said individual, Gabriel wouldn't be surprised if Castiel wanted to smite her.
Naomi.
He'd heard of her, yeah. Not much good, in any case. She was the one that tended to correct angels that got out of line. Gabriel had avoided her like the plague, and had been immensely glad that he'd hidden from Heaven for so long. He wasn't sure about her methods, but he didn't think they'd be any good. Plus, he was practically the walking talking proof that angels could exercise free will. He'd been doing it for ages, after all.
Whatever she'd done to cause the seraph to react the way he was, Gabriel had no clue. While yes, Castiel had fallen before, Gabriel had assumed that his brother was the one that followed orders without question. If that wasn't the case, then Naomi must have done something to him.
Regardless, Gabriel waved Castiel off as he got out of the car. Cassie didn't need to deal with whatever this is again. Besides, Gabriel had his big boy pants on. He could talk to an angel that tended to be overzealous in reigning the others in.
"There… is a chance that the gate's closed and they won't open it," Castiel offered, leaning out to look at the archangel.
"Yeah, well if they need me so much, they might wanna open the gate. Can't exactly fly up there on my own." Gabriel shoved his hands into his pockets as he glanced around.
"Well well well, if it isn't my least favorite brothers." Gabriel and Castiel looked around, quickly spotting the darker-skinned man walking toward them. "The rebel and the runaway. Come to finish the job Castiel?"
Gabriel quirked an eyebrow, glancing toward Castiel and jerking his head in the other's direction. "Who's the town drunk?"
Castiel sighed as he climbed out of his car. "Indra, are you drunk?"
"Took a page out of your book Castiel. Went to find a liquor store to drink." The other angel swayed, frowning as he looked toward Gabriel. "I thought you had died."
"Can't keep a good angel down, you know." Gabriel frowned. "So, why the trip into boozetown, anyway?"
"We are a dying species, Gabriel. I believe he is entitled to a bit of pessimism and depression over it." Castiel looked toward Indra with an expectant look. "We need you to open the gate to Heaven."
Indra shook his head. "The gate's always been here, you know, but Naomi closed it."
"Well, she can unclose it." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Can't exactly start trying to help if someone's got the velvet rope up keeping everyone out."
"That's where you're wrong." All three angels turned at the new voice, Gabriel noting Castiel tensing immediately. Another angel, this one with platinum hair, walking forward from further into the park. "Hello Gabriel. I almost didn't think that Castiel would find you, let alone convince you to help."
"Hi Naomi. Almost didn't recognize you without the strings Michael pulled." Gabriel snarked.
"And I'm not exactly sure if you're actually going to help." Naomi paused, looking toward Indra. "You may go back to your duties now."
Indra grumbled and walked back to his position. Gabriel shot a glance toward Castiel before responding. "I'm a bleeding heart of generosity. Cassie's soulful baby blues convinced me otherwise."
"Still just as snarky as ever, I see." Naomi turned to look at Castiel. "You may go now. I need to bring Gabriel up to speed on the situation."
Castiel didn't seem to need much prompting, turning stiffly and climbing back into his car. Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at Naomi. "So what'd you do to get Pinocchio all bent out of shape?"
"My job, which probably would have been unnecessary had certain individuals still been in Heaven." Naomi turned and started striding back the way she came. "This way."
Gabriel could easily hear the jab in her statement, but followed nonetheless. His eyebrows rose as he spotted a sandbox with a sigil drawn into the sand. "So Metatron really did a number on Heaven, didn't he?"
"Metatron, Castiel, Bartholomew, Malachi, Lucifer. All of them have caused the situation we're in now." Naomi paused and turned to face the archangel before she stepped into the box. "My question is, what are your intentions?"
"Hey, if you don't want my help, I can always go back the way I came." Gabriel narrowed his eyes. "But I'd be dooming this world if I did that. Besides, someone's gotta make sure that Heaven doesn't come crashing down."
Naomi gave him a doubtful look. "If I were capable of doing it, I'd reprogram you to prevent that from happening. As it is, nothing that I have would affect you." Her mouth drew into a fine line. "Regardless, I don't have many options, and the last person that claimed to help vanished. I'm just making sure that I'm not making a mistake here."
"Dad really screwed the pooch here, didn't he?" Gabriel shook his head. He wasn't sure if he was surprised or not. As far as he knew, God had left and wasn't coming back.
Sighing, Naomi shook her head. "You really have no faith left in our Father, do you?"
"At this point, I have faith that what will go wrong, can go wrong." Stepping up to the sandbox, Gabriel looked back at Naomi expectantly. "So, we going up or…?"
Naomi stepped forward, and the sudden rush of light left Gabriel frowning as he stepped into Heaven. It felt like home, his grace seeming to expand outward, and he could feel his wings stretching to their fullest extent for the first time in ages. Naomi had already stepped forward, and Gabriel made a face as he hurried to keep up. Glancing around, Gabriel couldn't help but realize just how empty it all felt. There were no whispers of wings moving about, no angel radio broadcasting thousands of voices at once. Despite feeling like home, it felt just as much a tomb. The place reminded him of an office building, crisp clean lines and white everything, but not a living angel in the place at all. It gave him the creeps.
"Wow, place sure is quiet." He glanced toward Naomi, who was waiting for him at the end of the hall. "If there's barely a dozen angels left, where are they?"
"Busy, trying to keep Heaven going as long as we can. Most of us haven't had a chance to really take a break from it." Naomi studied him. "The last person that tried to run Heaven promised to make angels, but he lied. I expect you won't make the same promise?"
Gabriel snorted and placed a hand on his chest. "What, me making angels? Sorry, I'm not Dad. He's got the mojo for it, I don't. Hell, I don't even have enough mojo to heal myself right now."
Naomi narrowed her eyes, stepping forward as Gabriel held up his wounded arm. "I see. It's still recharging, correct?"
"Slowly." Gabriel made another face as he considered his grace for a moment. "Asmodeus did a number on me when he kept stealing it."
"And he is dead." Naomi shook her head. "I don't think he realized what he was up against, not truly."
"First you insult me, now you're buttering me up. What gives?"
"I'm trying to ascertain if you'll actually stick around or if you'll run." Naomi shot him a look. "So far, all you've done is state you will, but shown nothing proving it."
Low blow. Gabriel glared. "I'm here, ain't I? Besides, we've got a bigger problem than just Heaven falling. Haven't you already heard from Castiel about the other Michael that wants to make our world his home?"
"I've heard." Naomi crossed her arms. "That's why Castiel is off with the Winchesters and you are here."
"So you're trapping me here?"
"If you're so intent on leaving, then leave." Naomi pointed back the way they came. "Heaven will fall, the souls collected here will descend upon the Earth, and the world will be doomed." She shook her head. "I don't even know why you came back if that's all you were going to do."
Gabriel bristled. "Because that's all I've ever done! I've run from everything else, and because of it, I got screwed over. This time I'm trying to fix my mistakes!"
Naomi nodded, seemingly appeased. "Good."
"Good?" Gabriel frowned, trying to figure out what her game was. "The hell do you mean, good?"
A small smile graced her lips. "You're determined. You want to fix all of this. You want to help finally. That's what's good."
Gabriel sighed, rubbing his forehead. "And that's why you decided to pick a fight. Great. This is starting out well."
"I wanted to determine if you were sincere. Lucifer was selfish and tried to find his son while he was here. You genuinely want to help. There's a large difference there." Naomi cocked her eyebrow. "Unless you were lying."
"Hey, my days of playing the trickster are over." Gabriel raised his hands. "Done, Finito. Lumping me in with Luci is insulting since I never turned against Heaven."
He then ran through her last words in his head. They'd turned to Lucifer. Lucifer used Heaven to get to his son. The son that Gabriel had corrected when Lucifer had tried to talk to Jack. Gabriel sighed. He could swear that he could feel a headache coming on even though his grace was surely preventing it. They'd accepted Lucifer on the lie that he could create new angels, if what Naomi said was correct. Ugh, now he understood why the Winchesters drank so much. If they dealt with just the idea of something this bad every day…
His thoughts then turned toward the problem that Michael presented. It'd take an archangel's grace to open a new portal. Lucifer was currently in the other world. Eyes widening, he suddenly wanted to punch Sam and Dean. If he was right, and generally Gabriel was a good judge on his brothers, being abandoned like that, even if Lucifer rescued Gabriel from Michael, meant that Lucifer had to have a heck of a grudge against the Winchesters. And grudges like that, well, knowing his brother, meant that he was likely to turn on this world.
"I swear to Dad that I'm going to send the Winchesters back into TV Land." Naomi cocked her head, an eyebrow raised as she listened. "Okay, so, right now we have Michael who's trying to come to this world. He needs archangel grace to open a gate. Guess which of the remaining archangels was left behind?"
Naomi blinked, then dawning comprehension crossed her face. "Lucifer is there, isn't he?"
Gabriel nodded. "And if I know Lucifer, he's going to be pissed that the knucklebrains trapped him there."
Since no one could do anything directly about the issue with Michael and possibly Lucifer, Gabriel had been shown to a room and settled behind a desk to assess what exactly was going on. Not that he actually liked the idea. In fact, he actually hated it. Whoever had the brilliant idea to convert all of the information about Heaven and running it into endless piles of books, papers, scrolls, and the like needed to be shot. If this was why Dad had skipped out on Heaven, suddenly Gabriel understood exactly why Michael wanted to bring about the Apocalypse. Heck, he'd be tempted too if it wasn't for the fact that he was trying to prevent it.
He shoved away a book, groaning as he realized that he'd been staring at Enochian too long. He was starting to see sigils permanently etched in his vision, and considering that he could see in multiple wavelengths at once, that was a bit troublesome. Blinking, he contemplated evacuating his vessel for a bit to actually stretch his true form out before a knock on the door drew his attention.
Not that Gabriel had been snooping in on angel radio, but the news that he'd come back had very quickly reached the ears of the remainder of the Host. Every single one of them had their own wild theories about where he'd been, what he'd been doing, and who he was with. So far, the only one that seemed to know was Naomi, and that was likely due to poking around in Castiel's brain for so long. Which, considering that he had to keep up on everything that had happened in Heaven, he'd decided to take a peek at the information regarding the rebellious angel. The simple fact that everyone in Heaven that wasn't a dead human hated Castiel's guts caused Gabriel to roll his eyes. If only they knew all of the hijinks that he'd been up to, they'd have a much higher opinion of the last remaining seraph.
Glancing up from the status of the vaults, he spotted the lone angel who was carrying even more scrolls for Gabriel to go over. Duma seemed to be intent on her task and placed them onto the desk the archangel was seated at. Gabriel groaned, rubbing his face and shaking his head. "Yep, this is exactly why Mikey went crazy. He had to deal with all of this."
"You requested all of the information we could get on the state of Heaven right now." Duma gestured to the scrolls. "This is the information on the various souls we currently have."
"Okay, yeah, I have a better plan." Gabriel looked over the mess of scrolls, books, and papers on the desk, frowning for a moment before he snapped his fingers. All of them disappeared, and Gabriel was left with a tablet.
Duma's eyes went wide, and Gabriel sighed. "I just made the information portable. One, it's a lot easier to go through, and two, it's a lot more efficient. Though," he groaned, realizing he might have stretched his grace a bit too much, "maybe I overdid it a bit."
Duma stepped forward to examine the tablet. "This is similar to what humans possess? It doesn't look like it holds everything."
"Digital information. Basically I just touch it, put in a search term or something, and it spits out related files." Gabriel shook his head, bemused. "Gotta hand it to humans, they've come up with some nifty ideas over the millennia."
Duma's eyes trailed back up to Gabriel and frowned. "Your vessel, it's bleeding."
Gabriel looked down at himself. No blood there, though the moment he touched a finger to his face, he felt something sticky beneath his nose and drew his hand away to reveal blood. "Yeah, strained something."
"It's too bad Raphael isn't with us anymore. He would have healed that." Duma looked back over the tablet.
Gabriel winced at the mention of his older brother and wiped the blood from his nose. He hadn't been around for Raphael's death, as he'd been taken by Asmodeus at that point. He would have loved more than anything for his family to be whole, but it just wasn't in the cards. "Yeah, I bet he would have." Picking up the tablet, he looked back at Duma, lips pursed. "So, I'm guessing Naomi doesn't wanna deal with me?"
"She said you're… a bit of a troublemaker."
"Well, she's right about that." He leaned back, amusement coloring his features as he cocked an eyebrow. "What do you think so far?"
"You're attempting to lead us. Whether or not you're successful is another matter." Duma crossed her arms. "I don't exactly see how this can be fixed."
Gabriel shrugged, glancing back down at the tablet. "Eh, could sire a couple dozen nephilim, bring them back up with me." At Duma's scandalized expression, Gabriel barked out a laugh. "Kidding. One nephilim is enough for everyone."
Her eyes continued to bore into him, Gabriel sighed. "Look, I'm tired and sore. I've been looking through these files for what? The past three days now? All I've managed to figure out is that we're totally screwed if the other Michael comes through."
Duma rose an eyebrow. "You don't think we have a chance."
"All I'm saying is that right now, I've probably read up on as much as I can." Gabriel stood from behind the desk, stretching and hating how his vessel seemed to ache. He honestly had forgotten just why other angels didn't stick around in their own vessels for long. Something about bonding too much with them, getting on their wavelength. "Right now, if I read anything else, I'm gonna go cukoo for Cocoa Puffs."
Gabriel ignored the confused look he got from Duma as she followed behind him. Gabriel wasn't going to exactly say where he was going either. He was still trying to reacquaint himself with the layout of Heaven, since someone apparently had gotten rid of the Axis Mundi and replaced it with a line of doors. Which had Gabriel rolling his eyes. The Axis Mundi served as a great way to travel between the various heavens of human souls, and he wasn't exactly fond of walking down hallways. Too tedius, especially since the other angels couldn't fly.
Duma was following silently, and Gabriel sighed. She really was going to follow him everywhere. It wasn't like he could snap her somewhere else so he could get some peace. Heck, his last use of his powers was probably the best he could do at the moment. Which really stank. Absentmindedly, he summoned up a sucker to stick in his mouth to mull over the problem before he noticed Duma staring. "What?"
"Is that… human candy?"
"Cherry flavored." Gabriel twirled it inside his mouth for a moment before he pulled it out. "What, gonna tell me I'm not supposed to have sweets?"
Duma eyed him carefully. "You don't require food."
"I don't require sex either but I still find it fun." Oh look, Duma's expression seemed to vacillate between studying him, confusion, and scandalized. Gabriel stomped down on the urge to tease the other angel and instead tilted his head to the side. "I've been around humans for a long time. While the rest of you might consider them cockroaches, I like 'em. Flaws and all. Certainly more interesting than some things I can think of."
"And what about humans is so enjoyable?" Oh, there was another look. Calculating. She apparently was trying to figure out how he operated.
"The possibilities, man. They're creative, they're caring, they fight even if everything around them's gone to shit." Gabriel recalled Sam and Dean's unending stubbornness for a moment and snorted. "And then there's the whole fact that no matter how many times you try and knock them down, they get right back up. That's why Michael and Lucifer couldn't get the Winchesters to agree to be vessels. They're stubborn sons o' bitches."
Duma seemed to be considering his words. "They're… chaotic. I can't see why they're that way."
He smirked at that. "When you live for as much as maybe a century and some change, wouldn't you wanna live life as much as you can?"
"What they call living life is destructive."
Ugh, why was it that the most expressive angel he knew seemed to be the one that made potatoes look exciting? Gabriel had nothing on Castiel, but if this was an example of how the rest of the remaining angels were like, he'd be tempted to tell them all to get a life. Get out more. Stretch their wings a bit. Maybe take up the bongos or something.
He must have said it aloud, because now he had Duma snorting. "I would rather not follow in the footsteps of one that has fallen."
"Ya know, with an attitude like that, it almost says that you guys would have kicked me out." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "For all of Pinocchio's faults, he did try and help Heaven. He just made some boneheaded decisions."
"Your decisions didn't lead to anywhere near the harm Castiel caused."
"Got me there, but I've broken a commandment or three." Gabriel leaned against a wall between two doors they had passed. "Committed quite a few sins too. If you're basing your opinion on what Castiel's done, then you clearly haven't seen what I've been up to since I left Heaven."
"I've heard enough." Duma narrowed her eyes. "If it were up to me, you wouldn't be here."
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I didn't think I was getting the warm and fuzzies from you. Doesn't matter though. I am here, which is what everyone needs. Including one renegade angel." Gabriel rose an eyebrow. "Unless you're telling me that you don't really need me and Heaven's just fine."
Gabriel definitely knew the truth of the matter, as did Duma, it seemed. She straightened herself and glared. Oh, another expression. Maybe there was hope for this angel yet. "Heaven still needs an archangel. You're just the only one we have right now."
Sleeping was annoying. That was the first thing that popped into Gabriel's mind as he woke from a doze he hadn't meant to take. He'd been looking over his tablet, trying to figure out where exactly all the contents of the armory and weapons vault had disappeared to when he'd fallen asleep. Now he'd jerked awake, images of Asmodeus plaguing his dreams and the torments the demon inflicted upon him dancing through his mind.
The only good thing about sleeping, however, was that with his proximity to Heaven (read that as sitting close to the big chair itself) he could feel his grace much improved. It still wasn't one hundred percent yet, but it was certainly better than it had been. He'd grinned at the feeling though and proceeded to remove the bandage over his arm and heal the damage himself. Ugh, he missed doing something that simple.
With the return of his grace, he found himself tuning in more and more to what the other angels were doing. Duma of course was busy with her flunkies, Naomi was dealing with what seemed to be a strain on the powers of Heaven, and the others were elsewhere performing their assigned tasks. Which was why Gabriel had decided to see for himself what he could do for the failing of Heaven's power. If nothing else, it would distract him from his restless sleep. Not that it would likely change what happened if he found himself sleeping again.
He knew the feeling Heaven generated, could sense it with his very being any time he closed his eyes and concentrated. Before, it was a strong light, powerful, all-emcompassing, and infinitely beautiful and majestic. Now, it wasn't so much, weak and faint, like it was sunlight trying to break through a cloudy day. His own grace wasn't quite up to the task of propping it up and giving it juice, though he could feel that it wouldn't be long before he possibly could.
Today, however, was a different task. He'd traveled down the halls he found himself unfamiliar with, trying to see if he could find the Garden. Joshua was gone, killed during the events that led to Jack's birth, and Gabriel had long figured out that there was no tender for the most sacred part of Heaven. He vaguely wondered if there was a way he could get another one of the angels to care for it, but brushed it from his mind for the moment. There were other things the angels needed to do, even if it hurt him to know that Heaven's most sacred spot was likely suffering from the lack of attention.
Finally he could sense it, and as he entered it, he winced. The garden seemed less, and blight could be seen along some of the flora. It wasn't major, but spots of brown could be seen amongst the foliage. It almost was a reflection of his own grace, and if he didn't know better, he would have assumed that was the case.
Sighing, he took a seat on a boulder, rubbing his face and wondering if maybe he should start here. Sure, it didn't seem like much, but this was the center of Heaven, and getting it back to its former glory was likely to help with the power problems. He just wasn't sure his grace could handle it.
Ugh, this was giving him a headache to contemplate, and Gabriel rubbed his temples, well aware that while technically he never got headaches, considering the monumental task ahead of him would very much give him one if he were mortal. Michael would likely know how best to deal with this problem better than he did. However, Michael was in the Cage, and Gabriel wasn't willing to think about how his brother had fared down there. Raphael might also have had an idea considering he assisted Michael, but Godstiel had ensured that the other archangel was no longer around. Lucifer was completely out of the question, and was likely dead. Gabriel really was the only one who could help.
He heard someone moving through the brush, and blinked. He wasn't even aware that someone was in the Garden with him, and Gabriel rose to his feet. Following the noise, he found himself facing Indra again, looking over the vegetation with a morose expression on his face. Gabriel watched for a moment before clearing his throat. The other angel blinked and looked up, frowning, while Gabriel simply leaned against one of the ancient trees. "Yo."
"Gabriel, what are you doing here?"
"Taking a breather." Shoving his hands into his pockets, he cocked an eyebrow at Indra. "What'cha doing yourself? Decided no benders for a while?"
"Heaven is closed, which means all angels have been recalled." Indra simply shrugged. "Naomi only kept me on guard until Castiel could find you."
"And lemme guess, soon as that happened, she didn't need Cassie anymore and locked him out." Gabriel groaned. "Wonderful."
"He is the rebel."
"And I'm the runaway. Don't see anyone kicking me out." Gabriel smirked, but dropped it as Indra looked around again with a frown. "Okay, what's got your panties in a twist?"
"I do not wear panties," Indra stated defensively.
Gabriel laughed. "It's a human saying. Means what's bothering you. You seem like you're just watching the Garden just fade away."
"Isn't it?" Indra locked eyes with Gabriel, causing the archangel to grimace. "You can see just how bad Heaven is here."
"Yeah, I can." Gabriel frowned, crossing his arms and looking around himself. "I'm trying to figure out a good way to…" He stopped, turning back to Indra while the cogs turned in his brain. "Hey Indra, Naomi hasn't assigned you a task, has she?"
"No, she hasn't." Indra looked at Gabriel carefully. "Why?"
"Cause with Joshua gone, no one's caring for it. At least, not that I've seen." Gabriel studied the younger angel carefully. "You think you're up to the task?"
Indra blinked, his gaze traveling around the Garden for a moment before returning to Gabriel. "You're serious?"
"Completely." Gabriel gestured with one of his hands toward their surroundings. "Dad didn't exactly leave this for it to just languish. He left it for us to take care of. I have a suspicion that no one's thought to take up the slack yet."
Indra returned his gaze to the Garden, a thoughtful look on his face. "I could. It was said that God spoke to Joshua. Maybe he understood more about how to care for it. I don't know if I could-"
"Yeah, you can stop that thought." Gabriel shook his head. "Moping isn't going to suddenly make everything better, and doing nothing isn't helping the situation here. Not saying Dad's gonna suddenly show up to do heart-to-hearts again, but this is a start. Taking care of it was one of our duties before the shit hit the fan."
Indra seemed to consider Gabriel's words for a moment before nodding. "I certainly can try. Perhaps it could help."
Gabriel grinned. "Yeah, it certainly could."
Gabriel turned, about to walk out before Indra called his name again. Turning, he looked back and Indra gave him a hesitant smile. "Maybe it's best that you came back."
"Yeah, well, we'll see how everything turns out." With a wave, Gabriel left, thinking that at least one task was done. Now he just needed to see if there was something else he knew that needed tending.
Gabriel was back to staring at that damned tablet again. He was trying to see if there were any other important jobs that needed to be seen to, but he was developing that headache that he thought he was immune to. Stupid low grace. While he was finally able to heal after Michael's attack, that didn't mean anything when it still left him with other ailments.
Such as nightmares. Gabriel thought that having enough grace to heal meant that he had enough grace that he didn't need to sleep. Fat chance there. He'd ended up passing out for a few hours, feeling less refreshed and more wrung out and jittery from the remnants of a nightmare he had during that time. Gabriel hated the fact that he was even weak enough to suffer from it.
Sighing, he rubbed his face and shook his head, determined to power through. If the other angels could put up with this mess, then so could he. Focusing back at the tablet, he didn't even glance up as he heard a knock, figuring it was likely Duma or Naomi come to check on everything. "Come on in."
"Well, this is a sight I thought I'd never see." Gabriel's eyes snapped up from the tablet, shocked. He knew that voice, and sure enough, Lucifer was leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets. "My baby brother, stuck behind a desk and working. Mikey must be proud."
Gabriel stood slowly, feeling for his grace and realizing that he wasn't nearly powerful enough to deal with the elder archangel. "Well, you know, can't keep doing tricks all the time."
"Yeah, how is that working out, anyway?" Lucifer canted his head to the side, studying Gabriel. "You look like a mile of bad road."
"What are you even doing here Lucifer?" Gabriel was trying to wrap his brain around this one. How had Lucifer escaped the other Earth?
"Hey, I came to help. I'm a wellspring of compassion now. I'm trying to turn a new leaf."
Gabriel shot him a distrusting look. "Why are you really here?" Because if Lucifer was here, then that possibly meant that a rift was open, and Michael could possibly come through. There was also the mixed feelings he had regarding his older brother, considering what Lucifer had done to him in the past and his most recent act.
Lucifer strolled up and gave Gabriel a half-smirk. "Just like I said. I'm here to help. You said that Jack would never accept me and that he'd see the real me. Well, here's me putting my money where my mouth is."
"And you think that helping out is going to erase the fact that you're evil?"
"Not evil." Lucifer pointed in objection. "I'm not evil. Misunderstood, yes, but not evil, and if this proves it, then I'll do it."
Gabriel clenched his teeth. He had to tell the Winchesters about this development, but so far, he hadn't heard anything about Lucifer doing anything wrong yet. Key word being yet. "And exactly what are you wanting to help with, and what do you want in return?"
"I figured helping with the Heaven problem was going to be one thing, and stopping Michael is a bonus." Lucifer spread his hands and nodded in agreement. "Besides, I saved your life back in the other world. Might as well go all the way on the redemption train, right?"
"And get you closer to Jack." Gabriel crossed his arms. "Ugh, you're going to hold the fact that you saved my bacon back there over my head, aren't you? Shoulda known."
Lucifer shook his head. "That's where you're wrong Gabby. I'm not holding it over your head, I'm just reminding you of what I've already done. I mean, I did help open the portal-"
Gabriel snorted. "You didn't 'help', we had to hogtie you and take your grace to open the portal."
"Helped open the portal," Lucifer repeated pointedly, "and got all of the riffraff back to this world by distracting Mikey. If I were really out for bad, then why would I do all that?"
"Why indeed," Gabriel replied dryly. "So lemme get this straight. You want to help, and helping includes beating the twisted version of our brother and restoring Heaven. I'm getting that right?"
"Bingo." Lucifer grinned, "I knew you were my favorite brother for a reason."
Gabriel rolled his eyes. He didn't trust Lucifer, and he wasn't sure about what his brother was up to or how he came back, but he couldn't deny he needed the help. He just didn't think that the help Lucifer was offering was going to be a good thing.
