Nephorlo (not a real thing) in this refers to the offspring of an angel and pagan god/goddess. They are often seen as gods/goddesses however, as Gaea would correct me, it doesn't make all pagan gods and goddesses children of angels.

"I don't understand why you don't just kill him." Lucifer complained as Gabriel conjured another feral Spuds McKenzie behind the drunken man.

"It's more interesting this way." Gabriel explained, rolling his eyes and grinning as the man was knocked over by one of the creatures.

"I know we used to screw around but it seems like such a waste of time." Gabriel sighed in exasperation, rolling his eyes.

"You've gotten dull, Luci. I'm giving you an excuse to murder humans."

"I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy killing them. Humanity is scum. It just feels like a waste of time to go through the trouble of conjuring illusions to kill them when we can kill them with a thought."

Yeah, Lucifer was right. But that hadn't been his point of dragging her out on a Loki run. Though the morality conversation did help distract from the fact that Michael was still missing, it was a bit irritating.

"It's a matter of principle Lucifer. The humans I target go to my daughter, in Hel they are punished justly but purified."

"Daughter?" Lucifer looked over at him startled, wings flickering to the main plain behind her.

"Cool it, Luci. They're nephorlo. As powerful as a Cupid." Lucifer pursed her lips before returning her attention to the man, Gabriel followed his focus as one of the dog's began tearing his arm off.

"I thought you'd learned your lesson about hybreeding after Aedmiel." Gabriel kept the reaction to Aedmiel under that careful wall.

"I did learn my lesson. Raphael confirmed nephorlo weren't threats when she had Prometheus so I felt safe with my children. They're harmless."

"You did always make a cute mom." Lucifer said and it took a second for him to register what she was saying.

Gabriel spread his wings behind him, moving to tackle his sister when a startled sound escaped him. He stared at his hand and- oh hell no.

"You dick!" A now female Gabriel shouted, tackling his sister to the ground much to her amusement as they struggled to gain the upper hand, by the end of it they were covered in white and gold feathers and Gabriel was sitting defiantly on his sister's chest. "Change me back." Gabriel demanded, unable to bypass his sister's changes to his vessel. His. Him. He was a man, had been for decades. He'd gotten past the gender crisis after giving birth to a damned horse, who he loved dearly.

"But your vessel looks so pretty as a woman, Gabrielle." Lucifer teased.

"Turn me back, Luci before I start plucking feathers."

Lucifer pouted childishly, clearly not believing him because she didn't change it back. "If you keep your vessel a woman I'll try to appreciate humanity."

"You're full of shit, Luci. Turn me back."

Lucifer smiled at him, the smile turning immediately as confusion crossed her face. Lucifer sat upright and shoved Gabriel off as she rose to her feet.

"No no no no no." Lucifer muttered, "Michael? Michael!"

Gabriel jerked slightly as Lucifer brought to life a long ago silent connection that only existed for the Archangels. A connection that hadn't been used since Lucifer Fell. It bypassed the normal channels of communication and fed through emotion that Gabriel didn't realize Lucifer was capable of.

Gabriel rose to his feet, grabbing his sister's shoulder and shaking her until she focused on him.

"He's alive. Gabe, he's alive."

Gabriel wrapped his wings and arms around her and pulled her against him until her head was on his shoulder.

"We'll find him. If he's alive, we can find him. I know every damned trick in the book when it comes to Archangels on Earth. We'll find him." Gabriel promised.

"Metatron." Michael's voice came over that line, the first word spoken to him from Michael in decades and it was that asshole's name.

"Michael. Where are you?" Lucifer asked, her grip on Gabriel tightening.

"Heaven." Then the connection went cold and dread boiled heavy in Gabriel's chest. Metatron. The little douchebag was already on his to kill list for what he'd done to Heaven but this was a whole other line.

What was the little gnat planning to do with Michael?

"Gabriel."

"I'm thinking."

There weren't many options for directly going after Metatron. Especially if he had Michael. Even if there were, Gabriel had checked all of his backdoor entrances. Heaven was sealed up tight.

Gabriel almost wanted to laugh at the outlandishly stupid situation they were in. Two Archangels locked out of Heaven by Heaven's proudest grubworm. Gabriel had never understood why God had chosen the gnat to write His Word down. Especially considering Gabriel acted as His messenger until he fled Heaven.

"You won't like my idea, Lucifer." There was only one way to get back into Heaven and it required finding the prophet. It was a well known fact where the prophet was hidden out, the same two dumbasses that had led him to his death years ago. Without that Guardian Angel connection to Sam, he didn't get a resurrection if they got him killed again.

"Why would you think Sam could help us?" Gabriel didn't comment on the fact that Lucifer only acknowledged the existence of Sam. It wasn't surprising.

"They have Kevin Tran." Lucifer made a face at the mention of the prophet. "The kid is how they locked up Hell. It's our best bet."

"If that's our option, then let's go."

Gabriel eyed his sister suspiciously, that had been way too easy. Getting the help of humans? It didn't matter how desperate Lucifer was...Unless.

"You want to talk to Sam."

"What? No." Gabriel rolled his eyes at the blatant lie. "I need to talk to him. He thinks I tortured him, Gabe. Me torturing him is the most ridiculous thing on the planet. Maybe Michael would stoop to that level of resentment but we were occupied with each other."

"Thanks for that visual." Lucifer grinned at him as he shuddered.

"We weren't having sex, Gabriel. We were killing each other."

"Remind me when there was a difference?" Lucifer spread her functional wings behind her, the one still hidden away while it finished regrowing feathers.

"I'll race you there."

Then Lucifer was gone and Gabriel was forced to spread his own wings and launch himself quickly after his sister, tackling her mid flight and wrapping his arms around her back in a way he hadn't done in decades. She squeaked a protest, tail lashing out to try to detach him from her torso. He wasn't deterred, his grip tightening as she used the strength of her wings to fly them while he used his own to help guide her.

"Get off, Gabriel!"

"But I don't wanna." He responded petulantly, resisting the baser desire to allow his entire true form to escape it's confinement. He wasn't an archangel anymore.

"I swear you're the mental equivalent of a fledgling." Lucifer flew them upward, flying through clouds at speeds that might've disengaged him if he was a fledgling. Instead he met each of her spins with ease, drawing his wings inward and outward in ways he never thought he'd do again, and sure, they might've caused a tornado in Oklahoma, but it was worth it because it was a breath of relief before they dealt with pissed off Winchesters.

Damn.

Gabriel caught himself as Lucifer flew downward towards a town he'd visited once before, the both of them coming to a calm landing in Lebanon.

Gabriel's gaze wandered upward at the cloudy sky which was...Strange. It wasn't spring but those were definitely storm clouds, and this wasn't a storm they'd have been responsible for.

"You're an asshole, Gabe." Lucifer muttered from next to him and Gabriel acknowledged the area around them fully for the first time. It was a quaint town that was hardly interesting, a place he'd only visited because of the heavy warding nearby.

"You know you had fun." Gabriel retorted, settling settling on a familiar soul energy from the nearby gas station. Sam was there. That was an unmistakable soul. How had Lucifer found Sam so quickly? They were warded heavily. Logically no one should've been able to find them. Unless they'd had time. "Where is she?"

"You used to be quicker on the draw, Gabriel." Lucifer mused teasingly as she approached the gas station. Gabriel bristled but followed because it wasn't hard to guess where this was leading.

"I was right. You are a dick. You're going to play the same game, aren't you?"

"That was Lilith's plan, not mine." Lucifer brushed him off as they came to a stop outside. Inside Gabriel saw a face he hadn't seen in over a year. A face that looked to be in as bad of shape as he'd been in the mental hospital.

He hasn't been sleeping again. Years as the middle Winchester's guardian angel kicked into gear as he took note of everything wrong with the brother. He was damaged. Severely damaged. If Gabriel focused he could see patches of his soul missing. That wasn't supposed to be possible. Souls weren't supposed to be able to be fractured. There were hundreds of thousands of things that could be done to a soul but there was no logic to what he was seeing.

"That isn't possible."

"He was in The Empty." Lucifer responded quietly. "From what I understand he was drug out by Death."

Gabriel bit back and angry response. If Sam had been shoved into The Empty it was a reaper that had done it.

Gabriel was distracted from his internal anger when a familiar creature approached Sam from behind. The only thing that stopped him from flying in there and smiting her on the spot was Lucifer. Gabriel didn't want to fight his sister. Not over something like this. Gabriel flexed his wings behind him and watched as Ruby 'accidentally' walked into him and dropped an armful of chips. Sam, ever the good samaritan, helped her gather her things and Gabriel felt himself bristling with irritation as Sam bought right into her bullshit act. Why was it they weren't dead dead?

"You know, Luci. He's your vessel."

"Fuck off, Gabriel. Nothing about his behavior matches how I'd respond in this situation."

"You did fall in love with Michael." Gabriel jerked away as a tail came up and smacked him sharply in the back. "I'm just saying that you loving Michael is one of the most dangerous things we've ever done. If your refused his approach everything could've been avoided."

"What does love have to do with it?"

"You think way too poorly of humans, Lucifer. Humans are far more capable of love than any other creature." Gabriel griamced at his own words, not at all enjoying his own realization of why Sam easily accepted Ruby's approach.

"What are you insinuating?"

"I spent a lot of time following him around during The Apocalypse. I suspected it but… it's a rare occurrence. A rekindling at a soul deep level."

"You're saying that he loves her."

"No. It's not love. It's a soul thing, something we normally can't experience."

"You have a soul." Gabriel winced, surprised that his sister had caught onto that.

"A soul remembers and connects on a spiritual level. Humans don't realize it but it's why they behave like they do with people they haven't seen in years. It's their soul reacting to a familiar aura. Since the two of them spent so much time together, his soul's recognizing it."

"You sound experienced." Lucifer answered sourly and Gabriel shrugged.

"I've had my share of human friends, Luci. Yeah, my soul recognizes them if they get reincarnated. The fact that he trusts your little minion is a bit unsettling though. Any human ally I've ever had screw me over, it fractured the connection. Even the ones I was stupid enough to love."

"You think he loved her."

"I do. Which is a hundred types of fucked, but what can you do? I'm a little concerned that he's so quick to trust her, even if he doesn't actively know who she is, that same reaction from his soul shouldve sent some warning bells."

"Unless the fractured parts cut away the warning."

"Correctamundo!"

"You're ridiculous."

"Still your favorite brother."

"You're my only brother." Lucifer responded and they watched as Ruby and Sam spoke idly with each other, paying for groceries. "So do you have a plan to say hello?"

"I always do." Gabriel responded with a grin.

.-~*~-.

The woman that had bumped into him had been kind. Blonde with brown eyes, which had been a bit surprising. Despite his normal caution to strangers from years of hunting he'd found himself caught up in a conversation with her and before he'd fully realized it he was agreeing to lunch. Seriously. He was exhausted since he hadn't slept in two days. Lucifer had been relentless in his sleep. A constant string of torture that he didn't fully understand the point of.

"I didn't catch your name." Sam spoke as they made their way out the door and- Sam blinked and looked around at the long stretch of the sea in front of him, a sick feeling of dread crossing him as he spun around. Sure enough. It wasn't the store he'd left but an island with tall coconut trees and winding stretching hills that might've left him awestruck if it wasn't for the years of hunting sending warning bells through him.

"Damn it!" Sam's gaze followed the sound of the voice upward to where the woman from inside was hanging by her ankle. "Gabriel, you son of a bitch!"

Sam froze mid step at those words. It was one thing for him to have been thrown into a mess of chaos but that name… Damn.

Sam turned on his heels and was mildly conflicted at the sight of a woman standing there. Yeah, he knew about the angels jumps between women and men but if he was honest with himself he hadn't expected it from Gabriel.

"Hello, Sam." The archangel greeted, an all too familiar smirk on his -her?- face.

"Gabriel, let me down!"

"Later, Ruby." The archangel said dismissively.

"You died." Sam stated, taking a step back. The archangel rolled her eyes.

"That's old news, kiddo. Luci was hardly a match for my innovative ways."

"No. I saw Gabriel's body. We went back and checked. You were dead."

Gabriel made a face. "You two are the biggest dumbasses on the planet, I swear. I throw myself under the bus and you go back? See, this is how we know that God was a narcissistic dick, Luci. I told you."

Sam stumbled back at the way Gabriel spoke about Lucifer. The fact that he addressed her. Sam whipped his head around but saw nothing more than a stray glowing green stone resting on the beach in the distance.

I'm not awake. This is another twisted form of torture.

"Hey, Sam. Sam." Sam jerked away as hands came down on his shoulders. "Whatever you're thinking, you're wrong. I'm really here. Damn it. No, don't you dare." Sam flinched as the sound of snapping pierced the air and the ground beneath him shifted to what was clearly concrete. It pulled him from his initial shock and his instincts kicked in, causing him to jerk backwards and shove the archangel backwards. To both of their surprise he succeeded though he doubted it was the same reasons.

"Tell your sister to leave me alone. Both of you. I let her out, I should've never-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gabriel interrupted with concerned confusion.

"Lucifer, you son of a bitch. I haven't slept since the night I got back to the bunker because everytime I go to sleep she shows up and tortures me."

Gabriel's expression flipped to anger in a second and the air around them took life, the hair on his arms standing up. Gabriel spun around as a woman that looked hauntingly similar to his mother materialized behind him.

"Gabriel, I swear I didn't. I swear on the key-" Gabriel took a step forward, and the other woman dodged to the side as the angry archangel grabbed a handful of her hair.

"Lucifer." Sam breathed out and it was all wrong. The figure that had been torturing him in his dreams, she'd been different. A different form. Yeah, it could've been an illusion, a trick, but some terrible twisted part of him screamed wrong. This was Lucifer, she'd possessed him once before and she'd been vindictive and cruel but she'd never harmed him. "It wasn't her." Sam blurted, Gabriel was still bristling with power as he held his sister by her hair.

"I told you, Gabe. I never laid a hand on him." Lucifer ground out in irritation, twisting in Gabriel's hold. "Let me down." Gabriel begrudgingly did so, Sam's gaze never left Lucifer as she struggled to her feet, brushing her clothes off and scowling at Gabriel before turning her full focus on Sam. It'd been years since Lucifer had looked at him like that, like he was the most important object on the planet and not the bane of her existence. Some twisted part of his mind enjoyed it. It was a part of him that he hated. A part that had been suppressed for years because it was wrong. Something he knew was wrong.

"Sam."

Sam blinked, moving his attention to Gabriel.

"We're here to ask a favor."

Sam glanced back at Lucifer, "Michael is dead." Adam's grief stricken words rang through him like a warning siren. Sam knew the truth about Lucifer and Michael, had known for years. Sam wasn't sure it would be safe to mention that detail, though he had no doubt it was why Lucifer, as a female, would show her face asking for favors rather than tormenting him for a yes.

Who had been torturing him?

"But first, you said that Lucifer has been torturing you."

"Everytime I fall asleep." As if to prove the point he was forced to stifle a yawn. "She's different. Relentless."

"Gabe, it might-"

"No, Lucifer. It isn't that. It can't be that." Gabriel said with bitter determination.

"We need to be sure, Gabe." Lucifer bit out. "Sam, look. I get that you don't trust either of us, considering everything we've done to you, and the things you believe I did, it's inevitable."

"I believe you did?" Sam demanded, realizing the implications immediately. Yes, he could handle the concept that Lucifer wasn't torturing him now, the idea that he hadn't done it in The Cage…

"You're going to have to believe her, Sam."

"Gabriel, in my mind you might be worse than him." The other archangel flinched away though he'd been struck. "You were the one person on the planet that knew how to prevent the entire Apocalypse and rather than give a straight answer you tortured me for over a year."

"You don't know the half of what I did to you, Sam." A shiver went down his spine at Gabriel's dark foreboding words. "Never make the mistake of trusting me. Trust Lucifer though. Trust her not to ever lay a hand on you because you're the one thing on God's Earth that was made specifically for her."

"I'm not a possession." Sam growled out as a weak defense.

"No. You aren't. You're so much more." Lucifer spoke up. "You're the one human on this planet I'm capable of giving a damn about. I never would've harmed you and despite what you may believe about Michael, he never would have gone against his Father's wishes. Not intentionally."

Sam watched Lucifer uneasily as she crossed her arms over her chest. It was that crap that could draw him in. That promise. Lucifer had never lied to him. Even if she twisted the truth. Lucifer never lied to him. Dean would kill him if he knew what he was doing here. What he was considering.

"I need everything laid out. All of it. But not here." Sam turned and began the walk down the street, he didn't check to see if the Archangels were following him. If they weren't, well he could deal with that. As long as he didn't tell Dean. Because that always goes well.

"You didn't think to tell me?" Gabriel's voice demanded from behind him, sounding much more masculine, Sam glanced over his shoulder to Lucifer smiling smugly with Gabriel scowling and in the vessel Sam knew.

"You're much more pleasant as a sister than a brother, Gabriel." Lucifer's response came across the space and Sam couldn't help rolling his eyes as he began walking again. For a brief moment he was given the image of a female Dean and he shuddered at the prospect. Dean being a woman? That was one of the most comical visuals on the planet. It was a good distraction from the problems and the fact he'd just turned his back on two Archangels.

What was wrong with him?

Sam shoved those thoughts away as he stepped through the diner door. Crazy was his life after all.

"Sam!" Sam looked over to see that woman from the convenience store waving her hand at him. A frown crossed his face as he remembered her addressing Gabriel before Gabriel showed his face. What was she? Ruby. That was what Gabriel had called her but thinking back on his memories he couldn't place her. Did he know her?

"Can I smite her yet?" Gabriel's voice coming from behind him startled him out of his thoughts.

"You aren't allowed to harm her, Gabriel."

"No promises." Gabriel retorted as he pushed past him. After a moment Sam trailed after the archangel and he could all but sense Lucifer behind him.

Dean would kill him for this, but he needed the whole story from Lucifer. If she hadn't tortured him, and Michael hadn't, what had? His first instinct was maybe The Cage but from what he understood it hadn't tortured Lucifer.

"You're leaving." Gabriel told the girl bitterly who rolled her eyes.

"I don't take orders from runaway Archangels."

"Just Fallen ones that lead you down a path of destruction?"

"Fuck off, Gabriel."

"Know what? I like you better as a gnat." A snap of his fingers and the girl was gone, Gabriel gracefully took her seat and stretched out, propping his legs across the booth.

"Move, Gabe." Lucifer scowled as she shoved her brother's legs off the seat and took the seat. It took a moment but Sam managed to convince himself to sit.

"Who is that?" He asked, watching as Gabriel swatted at what could only be the gnat.

"Ruby." Gabriel responded, voice heavy with annoyance.

"What is she?"

"Your head's really screwed up isn't it? Long story short she's one of Lucifer's most loyal followers."

Sam looked over at Lucifer who was staring at the table.

"Is she the other demon?"

"So Meg did find her way to you boys. Told you, Luci. Head over heels with an angel."

"I brought back two demons tainted by human emotion."

"It's all very tragic, I know. Stop moping like a kid. I swear."

Sam couldn't help but smile at Lucifer's childish pout. It was foreign, in a good way. It resembled memories Lucifer had shoved down his throat when she was possessing him. Lucifer acting like she'd behaved before she had been corrupted.

"Anyways. I think you might know more than we do about the situation. So let's recap on what we know." Gabriel huffed a breath of annoyance as the girl, Ruby, took human shape next to him. Sam unconsciously scooted away from her before looking back at Gabriel. "You dumbasses in all your glory decided to shut down Heaven and Hell, which was a stupid choice I might add."

"I'm aware it was a stupid choice, though I really don't remember doing it."

"What exactly happened to you, Sam?" Lucifer spoke up and Sam flicked his gaze to her.

"I closed Hell and died. According to Gaea-"

"Gaea?" Lucifer interrupted with mild interest.

"When Death brought us back he left us with her…" Too late he realized his slip up. A topic that was as dangerous as the archangel in front of him if his suspicions about his youngest brother were correct. However, neither questioned it and Sam was reminded that they'd come to him for help. Was it possible…

"Gaea is a conniving little bitch. Are you sure it was Death that brought you back?" Gabriel spoke up.

"I am not cleaning up your messes. This is the last time. No more redos."

"Yeah." Sam forced away the sick feeling that Death's words drew forward. "He told me he wasn't cleaning up our messes and this was the last time."

"I'd apologize but you boys really deserve some rest."

Sam raised an eyebrow at Gabriel who rolled his eyes. "I'm sentimental."

"I think that's called guilt." Lucifer piped in and Gabriel scowled.

"Gaea was thrilled you were out." Sam interrupted in hopes of changing the topic from his inevitable death.

"Of course she was." Lucifer brushed it off with bitter annoyance.

"She won't be when she finds out Michael has Luci back on a leash." Gabriel chimed in and Lucifer elbowed her brother in the side.

"That isn't how our relationship works."

"I'm not judging. It's that balance Mom and God were trying for when they created us. It was almost perfect until She decided to try to kill Mikey."

Sam foggily remembered Lucifer referring to God not being his Father though when he pushed further at that he couldn't remember what it was. What had it been? It should've been simple. All he had to do was latch onto it and-

"Sam!" Sam tumbled out of the booth, shouting out as his head collided painfully with a tile.

"Damn it, Ruby!"

"Bite me, Gabriel. You aren't watching his soul."

"And you are?" While the two of them bickered Sam's mind was elsewhere as Lucifer had stood up and was kneeling over him, offering a hand that Sam wasn't sure he felt comfortable taking. Despite what she was claiming, there was that bitter sense of doubt. The what if clause. What if she was lying and accepting her hand could be taken as a yes? It was almost irrational but Lucifer had spent so much time tormenting him for a yes the first time that it was rational to be paranoid.

Carefully Sam moved away from her, pushing himself to his feet and glancing to the rest of the diners who didn't seem to realize anything had happened.

"You're really making it hard not to kill you."

"I don't have to listen to this."

"What? Are you going to tell my sister on me? What are you, twelve?"

"Will the two of you shut up?" Sam snapped at Gabriel and Ruby who stated at him for a moment.

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

"Why did you push me out of the seat?" Sam asked Ruby, ignoring Lucifer's remark.

"You were trying to remember something and it was disrupting your soul." She made a face at her words. "It's more complicated than that."

"Try not to remember things you can't remember." Gabriel offered unhelpfully as Sam slumped into his seat. "Nothing is pulled out of The Empty so I don't really know what to tell you, Sammy."

"Don't call me that." He responded automatically as Lucifer retook her seat. "Explain to me what happened to me in Hell if it wasn't you."

Lucifer shifted uncomfortably as Gabriel cast a sidelong glare at her.

"I don't know for sure. I have an idea."

"An impossible idea." Gabriel cut in.

"Shut up, Gabriel." Sam told him, full attention on Lucifer because she was easier to handle than him.

"Before I was originally caged by Michael there was another threat to the planet. A mistake that Gabriel made."

"She wasn't a mistake."

"Who?" Sam asked even as dread boiled in his stomach. Sam remembered something about this. Something Lucifer had said years ago.

"Aedmiel."

Something tore through Sam's mind at that name, it felt as though his scalp was ripped from his body and his brain was placed in thousand degree heat.

"Sam. No, no, no, Sam. You don't get to talk to my uncle. Bad, Sammy." Sam flew back and shouted out as he slammed into a wall, pain crossing his limbs as his bones shattered and a haunting being with fractured wings and hollow holes where his eyes belonged appeared before him, a twisted smile on his face.

"Aedmiel?" Sam choked out around a mouthful of blood.

"No. Aedmiel is gone." The creature responded, grinning sharp fangs as a spiked tail came out from behind him. "Call me Beelzebul. I have taken Hell and very soon I will take Heaven. Not that you'll live long enough to see that. Let's find out where you are, hm?" The tail shot forward and Sam screamed as it pierced the center of his skull.