Well, you asked for a new chapter soon and I got bored. Extremely bored. So here's chapter four. Also, thanks to Noni for helping pick up the faults in the story. It's not rude if it's true and it doesn't matter if it took five minutes to read the review. Don't worry, I have English next semester!

Disclaimer: If I owned Supernatural, we wouldn't be waiting to see what happens to Bobby.

Chapter Four: Emotions and What They Mean

As it turns out, praying to Father? Didn't work. Michael still went blue in the face as he shouted at both his brothers and the Winchesters for taking 'foolish risks'. It wasn't very convincing or threatening because Gabriel, making sad eyes and whimpering, managed to get him off track about every three seconds. The trickery had it's drawbacks, though. Yes, he stopped his lecture…then started at the beginning. Repeatedly. Finally, after at least thirty retellings of what could have happened, Gabriel rolled his eyes and slowly scooted away. Very, very slowly and very, very painfully. As inch by inch he got farther away from his anal brother, the mischievous archangel wondered why he hadn't been caught yet.

Glancing back didn't work well since he had just gone through a rise in the clouds. Which, he discovered as he crawled through them, were storm clouds building from Michael's rage. Woe to him, now not only was he in pain and desperately trying to ignore it, Gabriel was actually being ignored. Not that it wouldn't have been the first or last time this spectacle had happened, it was just that he was hoping to have more time with his brothers before they became archangels again. Knowing it would happen and actually living it were two entirely different things and as he thought this, Gabriel found himself overlooking Earth in all her polluted splendor.

Remembering ye olden days would only make things worse and not for the first time did Gabriel find himself wishing for brothers like Sam and Dean. They were alike to Mikey and Luci, but so extremely different…funny thing is, he had seen them two thousand years ago and he still envied them, Hell and all. Because they had each other, unlike the perfect, obedientarchangels that God had created. If things were different here, more like Earth, then maybe Lucifer wouldn't be wearing a rotting meat suit and chasing after his true one. Freewill. Maybe it was worth something after all.

Shaking off his depressing thoughts, Gabriel sighed longingly before forcing himself to stand. Raphael and Michael didn't seem to care anymore, so what was one more lookie-loo before fading into dust? After all, there were no more messages to send between planes of mortal existence so what was the point of having a messenger? There wasn't one. Eyes flickering shut, he focused on the raw power down near the core of his grace and forced it into being. All around him, heaven glowed with brilliance as Gabriel the Golden made a choice. One that would ultimately destroy him.

Amber and gold eyes flared open to stare in horrified awe at the devastation that he used to call home. In the distance, human children called for their mothers while fledgling fell in pieces from the sky. Michael was chained in hell, screaming in rage and pain while Lucifer took revenge on their Father's new favorite children. The biggest temper tantrum of all time had turned both heaven and earth to war zones. A sanctuary…gone in the blink of an angel's eye. Yet there were still people fighting against the bad as though there was a chance for light to prevail.

Predictably, Dean Winchester and Castiel led the fruitless rebellion against…Sam. So he had given in, after all? The youngest Winchester had said yes to Lucifer and Michael could no longer hear his vessel's pleas as he was tortured by two of the four horsemen. So this is what it will be like if they break, thought Gabriel. Numb to the terror of it all, he walked the broken streets as the resistance fell almost immediately with the strength of a new Legion born of suffering. This is what the Winchesters are trying to prevent and what my brothers are hurrying along. Gabriel knew he should be disgusted with what heaven had become but couldn't bring himself to feel.

With a sudden thought racing through his head, Gabriel added something to this future. Something unexpected and unplanned in Atropos' scheduled planner. Himself. Closing his eyes, the scene changed entirely. Humans still fought against the things that went bump in the night, though it was harder than ever before they were not overcome. Heaven, beautiful serenity that it was, hadn't changed much from the first future. Still as war-torn and bloody as ever. Michael and Lucifer battled it out in the cage he had formed for them millennia ago in that last fight between siblings. But Earth…it was still beautiful. Sighing, Gabriel gave in to the inevitable and opened his eyes.

So. Now he knew why the stubborn brothers were still fighting. It was for a future, not just theirs but for the entire existence of life everywhere. Gabriel didn't notice when his knees hit the clouds, still roiling with thunder and holy rage. He was too busy smiling and planning for pain to grab hold. After all, he would be a hero. What's wrong with that?

Michael's still going….

"-does anyone here have even a brain cell between them? You have no idea how dangerous it was going with Gabriel on a time trip when he's that exhausted! Not just for you, but for him, too! Castiel, you should know better by now than to listen to Gabe when he gets an idea in that thick head of his. He raised you, for Father's sakes! You should be able to tell when something has gone wrong so why did you go through with it? Never mind, Gabriel raised you. Even if you boys knew how painfully you could have died in whatever memory that beloved, glorified idiot I call my brother showed you, it's entirely conceivable that you would go on your own accord. Now, as I was saying in the first place-"

It went like that for quite a while. Castiel, way too used to it for his few years as an angel, had learned to just look, listen and blink with a few ashamed head nodding in between. This had gotten him far in life and didn't seem to let him down now. Sam and Dean were currently either half dead or half asleep. It was still hard to tell the difference, really. Either way, whenever Michael looked at them this vein in the side of his neck would protrude ever do slightly as his face turned an odd color of blue. Castiel couldn't help but wonder if there was something blocking his grace. Catching an angry gleam in Michael's eyes, he quickly nodded along.

From what he'd seen of Alistair's torture, he could honestly say this was worse. Not only was there disappointment in Michael's smooth bass voice, there was also pain in that he knew he could have lost Gabriel yet again. Nodding again, Castiel wondered just how Heaven had gotten on without the messenger's laughter ringing through the clouds or the sweets he happily shoved down the fledglings' mouths. The joy that was Gabriel had been missing for so long that many couldn't or didn't want to remember the times that golden light shone.

Interest waning, Castiel looked around before noticing something odd. The angel in question had disappeared. This was not an unusual occurrence, as Gabriel had an incredibly short attention span and no patience to speak of, but the trail he had left certainly was. It was leading straight towards Lucifer's chasm, where Heaven met Earth and Earth met Hell. Certainly he wouldn't have…? Not wanting to take the chance, he carefully opened his mouth only to have Michael hiss, "I'm not finished, fledgling!"

Five minutes. He had been going on for five minutes and he wasn't finished yet. Castiel was brought back to the time when Gabriel said the elder had lectured him for three days straight. Holding back a whimper, he shut his mouth and pleaded silently for holy intervention. Say, in the form of an angry Raphael or the interrupted choirmaster Seraphael? Unfortunately, both seemed to cower away when Michael was in a foul mood and weren't going to be his salvation anytime soon. Or ever.

Snoring started up from the spot where the Winchesters sat, and Castiel's mood lightened just a bit. Perhaps he could sneak off while his now sleeping charges were berated to tears. He couldn't do that to them, though. As Dean's guardian angel, it was his duty to protect him, and therefore Sam, from any and all dangers. That seemed to include angry archangels, high demons, dark creatures, you name it and the boys had run into it. Power didn't seem to keep the beasts away, but guns and machetes seemed to hold up well. At least Lucifer hadn't found a way to con Sam into saying yes, or Castiel might just have to retire.

Michael advanced on them threateningly, but before he could smack them with the flat of his blade a great yell came from beyond the Pantheon doors. Pausing, the archangel looked around and realized his missing trickster. Castiel sighed and felt for the pulse of grace that signaled their wayward brother, frowning when he couldn't get a lock on it. Michael didn't seem to be having much luck either, as a look of panic interrupted the stern features. Raphael burst through the door, wild-eyed, and shouted, "The idiot! Michael, he is looking. That imbecilic, beloved brother of ours is trying to kill himself!"

Now far, far away from panicked, the archangels were absolutely frantic as they opened their wings and took off right inside the Pantheon. The resulting mini-tornado hit the Winchesters head on, forcing the boys to wake up and yell as they were tossed nearly head first into a mighty stone bookshelf. There was no time to explain, so instead Castiel clasped their arms and flew as fast as he could to hopefully save the 'wayward idiot'.

Castiel was forced to land in a crowd of angels both older and younger than he because the seemingly endless stream of angels pushed them from the air. Shoving his way past brothers and sisters, he felt wildly for the barest pulse of grace to tell him Gabriel was still in existence. It was there, thank Father, but so extremely weak…it was as if the powerful archangel was no more than a lowly soldier, with a grace so dim and diminished an imp could kill him with ease. The thought scared Castiel, an emotion he discovered he didn't like very much at all. Fear, though only a primal reaction to surprise or pain, was an element in it's own right. And right now, he was very afraid for Gabriel.

It wasn't long before he could see why all of his siblings were gathered. A few feet away in the middle of the impromptu ring, Gabriel floated three feet off the ground surrounded by a nimbus of brilliant gold. Whatever was happening didn't look in the least bit painful. In fact, the archangel looked contented in his cocoon as sightless glowing eyes stared blankly at the Earth below us. Michael and Raphael, standing at his side, were trying to reach out to him with disappointing results. Raphael was instantly frozen, ice strands woven through his black locks. Michael did little better. With the element of fire, he could not be affected by the water Gabriel commands and reached fearlessly through the light.

For a few moments, nothing happened.

Then an almighty burst of light threw him back and into Raphael, who was still trying to unfreeze himself.

Almost wonderingly, the gathered angels watched as streams of solid black flowed over the archangel and receded, leaving gleaming runes of power in their stead. One in particular under Gabriel's left eyes caught his attention. It was Enochian for clear, so Castiel was pretty sure it meant clear vision for when the archangel searched the past and future. Only when using his traveling skills would these markings be clearly seen. Looking closer, he realized his guardian was nearly see-through. As suddenly as the light had graced Heaven, Gabriel smiled softly and it disappeared.

Leaving a still smiling Gabriel falling to the ground. While Castiel watched, the archangel hit the clouds with a soft thud and did not get back up.

Don't worry, people! He's not dead! I did not bring him back with the sole purpose of killing him again!