Delores hurried to her panic room. Opening the door to her library she saw Dean and Sam had their heads together over over the computers while Gather had an old book studying it.
"Boys we have a problem. Sudden electrical storms out of a clear blue sky never bode well." She told them.
"Dagon?" Dean asked looking up.
"A good possibility but if it is, he's done with being subtle." Delores said. "That means one of two things. He's strong enough to do whatever he plans to do or he's desperate."
"Got another problem guys. According to this book, God can't kill Dagon for some reason. But Michael can." Garth said.
"Oh great. Michael's stuck in the cage with Lucifer. I doubt he's going to be too eager to go to bat for us. We was willing to sacrifice billions before." Dean said. "Stop the Apocalypse by restarting the Apocalypse. Hell of a choice there."
"I'm thinking that there are more blanks in my information. I noticed the look between the two of you when I mentioned the Battle of Meggido." Delores said glancing at Sam and Dean in turn. "And the stop the Apocalypse by restarting it? Want to tell me what that's all about?"
"Look we get that you don't think Gabriel is dead, but it's how he died." Sam said. "He got between us and Lucifer, gave us time to escape. He left us a DVD telling us how to put Lucifer back in the cage.
"See Sam and I are Michael and Lucifer's vessels Sam said yes to Lucifer. I wouldn't say yes to Michael so he went after our half brother. Sam jumped into the cage with Lucifer riding on his back and pulled Adam in too." Dean said. "Humanity 1 Apocalypse 0."
"No wonder Dagon is back. Lucifer had very little love of humanity to begin with but now? He's really enraged. Pop him out of the cage and he'll destroy every living thing on the earth." Delores said. "You didn't stop anything, you just delayed it."
"What do you mean delayed it?"
"I'm assuming that Lucifer got out through the breaking of the seals?" Delores asked.
"Yeah, we didn't know that Lilith was the final seal until it was too late. Angels holding me in solitary didn't help either." Dean said. "Castiel had a change of heart and let me out but it was too late to stop Sam from killing her."
"Looks like we need to figure out how to lock down Lucifer's cage" Delores said. "We're going to need help for that. Tell me about Castiel."
"He pulled me out of Hell." Dean said and rolled up his sleeve revealing the handprint.
"You're marked." She said awed. "It's been thousands of years since a human has been marked by an angel, even longer since one has been pulled out of hell. Too bad he's not an archangel, he would know all about the cage. But Gabriel has visited you more than once he obviously has taken an interest in you. So lets summon an Archangel."
"Castiel, Stay with Sam call Father if there's any change." Gabriel said a pained look on his face.
"Gabriel?" Castiel questioned.
"The Moron-chesters have nothing better to do than summon me." Gabriel answered as he disappeared from Sam's bedside only to find himself drawn into a room occupied by four humans and surrounded by powerful warding and a ring of holy fire.
Gabriel sighed. "You two chuckleheads just don't know when to leave well enough alone do you?" He said to Sam and Dean before turning to look at Garth. "Oh Father help us! You're Singer's replacement?" Then he turned to Delores. "Magi, how about we dispense with the holy fire before it pisses me off."
Sam grabbed a fire extinguisher and was about to put the fire out when Dean grabbed his arm. Gabriel's eyes flashed gold for a moment. "Deano do you really want to continue to be reigning Douchebag of the Year?"
Dean reluctantly released Sam who quickly smothered the flames.
"Better." Gabriel snapped up a Milky Way bar. "Now want to tell me why I'm here? I was in the middle of something important."
"You're not dead?" Sam said.
"Nope. It will take more than Luci stabbing me with my own blade to do away with me. But believe me even a moment of non existence isn't fun." Gabriel said then looked at Sam. "Well maybe it is a bit more fun than your life Sammy, but not by much. Now can we drop the small talk and get to why I'm here?"
"You're not what I expected." Delores said.
Gabriel snapped his fingers suddenly changing his appearance. He was now wearing a long white robe, a fluffy set of wings spreading behind him. A glowing halo was hovering over his head and he held a harp in one hand. "This more like it sister?" he snarked.
"I know that angels are warriors. I am a magi." Delores answered respectfully.
"Stop being a dick!" Dean said.
"Well isn't that a case of the human pot calling the angelic kettle black." Gabriel said. "I think you could've given Zachariah and Uriel lessons in dickhood. How's the dickishness been working out for you so far?"
"Dean stop. We need his help." Sam said.
"You need my help? Sammy I like you kid, I really do; but you two morons have got to kick this habit of playing damsels in distress to my knight in shining armor. I can't give you any more help than I'm already giving you." Gabriel said. "Even Father has personally taken an interest in helping you. He's given you a second chance, it's how you've gotten this far."
"I don't understand? What do you mean how we've gotten this far?" Sam asked.
"Things have changed, but they haven't changed enough. This is on you Dean." Gabriel said. "All I can do is tell you to remember how well being dick has turned out for you so far. You're the butterfly flapping your wings, What you do affects everything around you remember that. What's happening now is because of your actions in the past. Try thinking about the consequences of what you do now."
"That's really straight forward and not cryptic at all." Dean said.
"How's this for straight forward then? You hold Sam's life in your hands. You make the right decisions take the correct actions and Sam lives. Make the wrong decisions and Sam dies." Gabriel said. "Believe me Deano, You can never go back to change a wrong decision. You just have to try to make better decisions in the future. I know from experience, my wrong decision is staring you in the face thanks to Castiel's wrong decision.
Castiel made a wrong decision because you made the wrong decision of not listening when he told you that the righteous man was the only one who could stop the apocalypse. All Sam could do was slap a band aid on things."
"So you won't help us?" Sam asked.
"I'm already helping you Sam." Gabriel said gently. "This is father giving your brother a second chance. But in another time and place I'm keeping hell out of your fever fueled dreams. I'm keeping you alive long enough for Dean to fix this."
"Ah Dude, we did have a question." Garth piped up.
"Well it does speak after all!" Gabriel snarked. "Save it. The cage is of no importance, Dagon is. Figure out how to handle Dagon before he sets his sights on opening the cage. Lilith is dead, the final seal can never be repaired.
Dagon was once an Archangel, but he was cast into purgatory long before Lucifer was tossed in the cage. He doesn't have the knowledge that Michael, Raphael and I hold of the cage. Take care of Dagon before he gains the knowledge.
And before you even bring it up, Dean. I wouldn't kill Lucifer and I'm not going to kill Dagon either. Deal with it."
The humans looked around the room to find that the Archangel was gone.
"Well that wasn't much help." Dean said.
"Actually it was." Delores said. "We know that this is a chance for you to fix things. And we know that the key to fixing things is Dagon. Dagon is doing something because we've got demon signs. And that somewhere along the line you made decisions that brought us here and you need to make better decisions from now on."
Gabriel appeared before Castiel holding a sword and scabbard. "Castiel, make sure that Dean can find this."
"Is that Michael's sword?" Castiel asked awed.
"Yep. Not like it's doing Mikey any good while he's down in the pit but Dean is Michael's vessel so he can wield it." Gabriel said.
"You know that this means he must kill Kemuel." Castiel said softly.
"No Castiel he must kill Dagon, Kemuel died a long time ago." Gabriel said. "The brother we knew is long gone."
