Free Will or Bust
"Kings?" Gabriel asked, staring intently over his hands across the table at Jesse Turner. The other ex-Heralds Leon, Kinsey and David watched with equal interest as the silence stretched on.
Jesse smiled and shook his head slightly, scanning what he was holding before looking up at the last remaining Archangel.
"Nope. Go fish," he replied, grinning.
Gabriel muttered something and started drawing cards into his hand. "I don't believe it..."
"Believe it capper, and you owe me now," Jesse grinned.
Gabriel sighed. "No, I think I mean something else."
"What's that then?"
Gabriel let his cards fall to the table. "That I can't believe that we're sitting here playing cards when the world is about to end!" He glanced up at the Demon guard who was patrolling along the inside of the car dealership, taking periodic glances out of the window and whispering into his headpiece. "Hey, you, sunglasses!" The guard stopped and looked over.
"Can I do something for you?"
Gabriel smiled tightly. "Yeah. We haven't heard a darned thing since we got stashed here, how's about you coming over here and filling us in on current events?"
The guard frowned, then shrugged. "Because there isn't anything that you need to know," he answered briskly before turning back to his rounds.
Gabriel let out a huff of frustration, then stood up from his chair at the table. The Demon turned back to him and raised an eyebrow in question.
"You are aware that I could blast you into the nether world, right?" Gabriel asked, cocking his head. "Wouldn't even be hard for me. Hell, it might even make me smile."
The Demon considered this for a second and then shook his head. "No you won't," he answered, saying something else into his microphone.
"And why not?"
The guard sighed and looked back at Gabriel. "Because then you'd have to do the boring-ass job of watching the perimeter yourself."
Gabriel cocked his head, then sat back down, nodding. "He's not wrong, you know..." he mumbled, leaning back and placing his hands behind his head. "Still..." he looked back to the guard. "When was the last time you heard from your boss?"
The guard sighed. "No one's heard from Mr. Crowley since his argument with your pal, Castiel. You know that."
"He didn't go back to his office?"
The guard shook his head. "Unlikely."
"Why?"
The guard sighed again, more loudly this time. "You're not going there."
Gabriel looked at him, confused. "And what makes you think that I'd even want to do that?"
The guard walked over and stood over the table, looking at Gabriel. "If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"
Gabriel's mouth twisted into a half-smile. "Probably."
The guard considered this for a minute, then nodded. "Worth a shot. Look, no one's heard jack from Atlanta because it came under attack this afternoon. Crowley wasn't there."
"What?!" Gabriel exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "Attacked? Attacked by who?"
"Who do you think?"
Gabriel frowned. "They must have been after the Book...did they get it?"
The guard shook his head. "Unconfirmed. The office was more or less destroyed."
Gabriel sat down heavily. "Well that's just great! And you didn't feel the need to fill us in on this, why?"
"Our instructions are simple; under no circumstances are you to leave this safe-house. There was no reason for you to know. There's nothing left in the Atlanta office anyway."
"Chuck and Charlie were still there," Kinsey said softly. "Trying to decipher the Book. Has anyone heard from them?"
The guard glanced at her and shook his head. "That's a negative. They were nowhere to be seen. No bodies, either. They either escaped, or were kidnapped."
Gabriel groaned and closed his eyes. "Yeah...yeah...you know, that actually does fall into the realm of important information that we need to know..." He looked up dangerously at the guard and scanned the ex-Heralds appraisingly, deciding something. "OK, that's it, let's go."
The guard stiffened. "I can't let you..."
"Go, go where?" Jesse asked, ignoring the guard's protests.
"To see if we can find those two," Gabriel answered. "And that Book."
"Sir! I'm afraid I cannot allow you to..."
"Won't that leave you exposed?" Kinsey asked. "That's very, very risky, Gabriel."
Gabriel crossed an arm over his chest and tapped his chin quickly with one finger. "You think they did this to draw me out?" He leaned back. "I mean, I'm the last guardian of the Gate, operative word here being 'guardian', and here I am stuck on standby. I mean, I am an Archangel, you know?"
"And they have seven of them now," Lindsey answered smoothly. "Not to mention the Angel and Demon themselves - if that is what you can even call them anymore - wielding the power of Heaven and Hell...those are long odds for one lone Archangel."
"If you could all just sit back down..."
Gabriel frowned, holding up a finger. "Newly minted Archangels, chicka, newly-minted. I've been doing this for more millenia than you can even fathom. I was there when God trapped the Darkness, I was in the leading charge against the armies of Lucifer as he stormed Heaven's Gate...the actual Gate, I should mention, not that god-awful movie...I can take out more than my fair share of these newbs before they even knew what hit them. Plus, you guys know their moves, right?"
"Sir! If you could please sit back down!"
"It's a good strategy," David agreed, nodding. "You're right - we're left with very little choice here. Crowley is MIA, and Castiel and the Winchesters are deep into the Cage by now. There's literally no one else to mount a rescue."
Gabriel nodded in agreement. "We have to risk it," he said, eyeballing Jesse. "You're a Muggle now, kid, maybe you should stay here."
Jesse shook his head. "No way. I'm no hero, but I'm not a coward either."
The Demon guard touched his earpiece and began to talk into it rapidly. "Beta-Zero, I'm going to need immediate back-up..."
Gabriel waved his hand and the guard flew across the room and slammed into a Yugo with frightening force, crushing it's side and shattering its windows. He slumped to the ground unconscious.
"Oh...oops," Gabriel said, grimacing in mock embarrassment. "Didn't mean to do that so hard."
"It wasn't all that hard, besides, he's a Demon, I'm sure he's fine," Leon muttered.
"No, I mean...poor cheap car..." Gabriel said, looking up before beaming at them all. "C'mon, let's blow this joint."
Angela watched the backs of the Angel and Demon uncomfortably and shifted to look back at Sarah, who was striding into the Stull Graveyards entrance, clutching the Book of the Damned to her chest, a proud smile on her face.
"Let me see that," Angela said holding out her hand to her. Sarah looked down at her hand and back up at Angela and frowned.
"What for?"
Sarah tilted her head. "I want to see the spell that the witch is casting."
The Angel turned his head slightly back at that and slowed his pace.
Sarah gave Angela a lop-sided, defiant smile and held the Book tighter.
"I'll repeat my previous question, 'What for?'"
Angela stopped directly in front of her, causing Sarah to stop. Sarah practically snarled in warning.
"Because I...no, because all of us, have a right to know what we're doing here, Sarah." Her right hand at her side closed into a fist, and white smoke began to curl up from it. "Don't make me ask again."
"What is this?" the Angel said, moving just behind Angela.
Angela flinched, but did not back down. She turned her head to address him. "What are we, Master? Slaves?" She turned fully to him, unafraid. "Slaves make really crap soldiers, from what I've read. What harm can it possibly do to know what the plan is?"
"Oh, I've found that even a little bit of forbidden knowledge can be a very bad thing," the Demon answered, moving over to join the conversation. The rest of the Heralds had stopped as well, and had formed a semi-circle around the group, watching in interest. The Demon glanced around, then narrowed his eyes and looked back to Angela. "Why is it so important to you all of a sudden?"
"Maybe I'm tired of being used as a mindless tool, my Lord," Angela answered defiantly. She looked around. "And I don't think I'm the only one, either." Robert nodded in agreement. Milo cocked his head, curious. Stephen folded his arms over his chest and looked on silently.
The Angel glanced around at them and sighed, looking at his brother. "How do you want to handle this, brother?"
The Demon scratched his chin, pensive. "This is what we knew already, isn't it? Father's handywork?"
The Angel nodded. "I'm sure of it. All the hallmarks of pure free will." He shook his head. "I haven't the time nor the inclination to start over with new Heralds."
"Not to mention the lack of raw power to make anymore of them in the first place," the Demon added. "Jesse Turner is tapped out." He sighed. "We're stuck with it. Rotten fruit or nothing." He shrugged and grabbed the Book out of Sarah's grasp easily. She gasped in protest and glowered at Angela. He handed the Book over to her with a nonchalant flip. "Here ya go, sugar. Knock yourself out." He looked around. "But do me a favor, make it quick, will ya? We're on a schedule."
Angela nodded and flipped over the Book, flipping it quickly to last pages where the Angel and Demon had indicated a spell for Rowena. Robert had moved to look over her shoulder, Milo and Stephen as well. Sarah stood petulantly off to the side and kicked randomly at the dirt on the ground. The Angel and the Demon stood off to the side of them, arms crossed, observing.
"Can we even read that?" Robert asked.
Angela shook her head. "Not the spells themselves, they're coded, I just want the title..." she frowned, reading. Then she looked up at the Angel and Demon. "A summoning spell? A simple summoning? Who or what are we summoning, Masters?"
The Demon held up a finger. "That's no 'simple' summoning spell, my dear. That is a particularly good one. All-encompassing, so to say."
Angela frowned. "Meaning?"
"Meaning it ignores things like spells and wards used to hide a person or entity from detection, it finds them regardless of where they are, or what's been done to protect them. It destroys said wards, and all related defenses, rendering them useless."
"Gabriel," Angela answered, closing the Book slowly. "You're going to summon the last Archangel."
The Demon simply smiled in response.
"It's not like we are expecting him to just come to us, now, is it?"
Castiel, Crowley, Dean and Sam moved deeper into the Cage. Sam shuddered. He remembered...he remembered...
Lucifer and Michael...Lucifer was furious...so furious...at first not even comprehending that someone as 'mortal and insignificant' as Sam Winchester could have bested him. His 'punishments' were swift and painful, eviscerating and smashing Sam's seemingly mortal form over and over and over again until there came a point where Sam didn't even know if there had been anything else in his existence but fire and blood and pain.
That had been the easiest part.
When it...slowed down...when Lucifer had begun to torture not just his body, but his mind, Sam remembered the false hopes, the decayed and malformed love, the endless darkness that Lucifer imposed on him until his mind broke...only to be restored so he could begin again.
Lucifer had not been happy.
Michael had been much, much worse.
Once it dawned on him that he was to be trapped for eternity in the Cage with his cast-out brother, he had snapped, blaming Sam as well. He worked with his brother to torture and destroy him, raging the entire time about how unfair it all had been, how he had merely sought to save the best of humanity. He, at last, had recognized his Father's hand in showing Sam the memories of love and commitment - that stupid, small detail - that army figured jammed into a space in the Impala – the small bit of love and detail that had given Sam the strength to beat Lucifer.
Eventually, he turned on Lucifer, blaming him for being too weak to win, for once again facing down the wrath of God and losing, this time dragging him along with it - they were mortal enemies after all. Their battles shook the foundations of the reality that was the Cage, but at least it gave Sam brief respites from the endless torture.
After a time, Michael vanished. He had descended farther and farther into madness until finally, it had consumed him. Lucifer returned to Sam and resumed his ministrations then, also bragging about how the great Michael had been reduced to a 'mewling kitten drooling and singing to himself in a corner'. He had won. He bragged about what he would end up eventually doing to Michael later - destroying him and absorbing his power.
Sam shuddered.
"Hey man, you OK?" Dean's voice broke through the paralyzing memory.
Sam blinked and tried to take a breath. It burned and he coughed harshly.
"Yeah, yeah, it's...this place..." Sam answered, waving his hand in the air. "I'll be allright." He forced a tight, fake smile onto his face and looked up at his brother. "Hey, I beat this before, I can beat it again."
Dean looked worried and unconvinced. "Yeah well, we'll be out of here soon..." he looked up at Castiel who had stopped and was also watching Sam, obvious concern on his face. "Right?"
Castiel let out a breath and nodded. "I...I think so. We need to find a link...something that was used to create the original portal."
"Like what?" Dean asked.
"I think, actually, that this may be what he's talking about..." came Crowley's gravelly voice from around the corner. He stuck his head around and pointed in that direction. "Maybe you all want to come take a look at this?"
Sam willed himself to move forward and Dean walked along behind him. They turned the corner in the tunnel to where Crowley was standing and stopped short, staring.
In front of them on the stone wall were faintly glowing runes, shaped like the assembled rings of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Crowley walked over to them and touched them. As soon as his hand reached them, the runes glow intensified, casting a reddish tone. He looked back at them and raised an eyebrow, moving away.
Castiel moved to the runes and then touched them as well. They began to glow a soft blue, reminiscent of the sky. He watched them glow then removed his hand, looking back at them shaking his head.
"I don't understand...nothing's happening," Castiel said. "Shouldn't there be a portal opening now or something?"
Sam moved closer and squinted. He touched the wall, but there was no change in the light this time. "Let's try something..." he mumbled. He looked back to Castiel and Crowley. "Both of you, touch the runes at the same time."
Castiel looked dubious. "Are you implying that only a Demon and an Angel working together can activate the Portal and escape the Cage?"
Sam shrugged. "We won't know unless we try it..."
Crowley shrugged and moved forward, slapping his hand on the wall. The runes immediately began to glow fire-red again. "If it means getting out of here, I'm game for anything at this point." He looked back at Castiel and raised his eyebrows. "Coming, darling?"
Castiel glowered and sighed, but moved to the wall anyway. "The sooner all of this is over, the better." He placed his hand on the runes next to Crowley's. "I don't even care if they destroy the universe at this point..." he added petulantly.
The runes exploded with light. The four of them turned away quickly in the sudden flash of luminescence, shielding their eyes.
There was a rumbling sensation, then a rush of cold, empty air, pulling away from them.
They looked up and saw a whirling Portal where the runes had been. On the other side was the grassy field of Stull Cemetery.
Crowley smiled and took a step back.
"Gentlemen, we have arrived."
Castiel lowered his head and dropped his Angel's Blade into his hand.
"Let's roll." he said, striding through the Portal, trenchcoat billowing out behind him. Crowley pulled out his own Angel Blade, Dean and Sam their modified pistols, and the three of them followed him through.
