Chapter 12
Everyone gathered in the library the next morning after breakfast to put their plan into action. If they could get the chosen angels out of the Empty and back into Heaven, they hoped it would be enough to get Heaven back on track and stop the souls from falling to Earth.
"Okay, is everyone ready to do this?" Dean asked looking around at the others.
"As ready as we'll be I guess," Sam said. He was nervous about letting Jack try to use his powers for this since they didn't know if he could control them.
"Jack see if you can find Gabriel, focus only on him," Castiel told Jack. "Remember what you did to find me. I know you can do this," he tried to encourage him giving him positive feedback.
Jack closed his eyes and tried to relax as he brought the face of Gabriel up in his mind. He remembered seeing some of the last scenes of Gabriel and his death from Castiel's mind and concentrated on him. He winced as his powers forced their way out and a sound wave emitted from Jack bouncing outward.
Dean, Sam and Castiel felt the tingling of energy fill the room. They looked around at each other and waited knowing this was how it started before. Silence filled the room as they remained still, not wanting to distract Jack but watched him closely.
"How will we know if he wakes up?" Dean whispered to Castiel.
"If you feel him Jack, I need to talk to him," Castiel spoke softly to him, ignoring Dean's question.
Jack hadn't opened his eyes as he let himself go following the wave. He found himself suddenly in a darkness like no other. It was a cold, dense, empty feeling, void of stimulation of any kind and he didn't like it, but he didn't pull back knowing this was important and he needed to accomplish it.
A mound started to move on the floor as the angel rolled over and opened his eyes to the blackness. It took him several minutes to slowly sit up and look around.
"Well hell, what have the Winchesters done now?" he asked with a sigh knowing this had their name written all over it.
Jack reached a hand out toward Castiel and waited for him to take it. He let his hand trail up his arm to his temple and placed two fingers there. Castiel closed his eyes when he felt Jack in his mind. He knew Jack must have found Gabriel and was trying to connect them.
"Gabriel can you hear me?" Castiel said in his mind.
"Yo bro, this is some kind of crazy here. Wanna clue me in on what's going on?" Gabriel asked when he heard Castiel's voice in his head. He looked around taking in his surroundings as he tried to piece together what had happened to him.
"You are in the Empty and you were in an eternal sleep, but we need you here. You know Heaven is failing and if we don't get some angels back there it will fall. It will be destroyed and the Earth alone with it if all the souls fell."
"Guess it was much worse than I thought? So what's the plan to get me out of here then?" Gabriel asked.
"There is an Entity in that place that will try to make you go back to sleep but you have to fight it. There will be more angels waking up and it is going to enrage him and cause him pain. It's a bully and a dick, but don't give in to Its demands. You have to convince It to let all of you go or we will start waking up everyone there and the Entity will never sleep again. Tell It we will not be stopped."
"Whoa dude, tall orders here. But I think I can handle it. Who better to get under someone's skin than a Trickster?" Gabriel chuckled rubbing his hands together with glee.
"Find the others, there are ten other angels besides you that will be waking. It may take the Entity a little time to find you if you keep moving around."
"So who won the jackpot and is waking up?" Gabriel asked.
"Samandrial, Theo, Ambriel, Ezra, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hannah, Anna, Gadreel, Joshua and you." Castiel named off the eleven angels.
"Good choices bro. So how am I to find our brothers and sisters?"
"Jack is going to start waking up the others one by one. I think you will find each other. You will be drawn together since you are the only ones awake in that place and your grace will search out the others. I don't know where the Entity will drop you, maybe tell him to send you to Lebanon, Kansas. But It night not be too cooperative."
"Bro only you would come up with this plan. Are the Winchesters there too?"
"Yes, we will wait to hear from you. Jack will be waking up others now. Be careful Gabriel."
"Hey, I've already died once, don't want to do it again any time soon bro."
Jack pulled back and dropped his hand from Castiel's temple and began to mumble to himself the names of the other angels they needed woke up. He could feel his body heating as his powers grew.
"Gadreel...Joshua...Daniel...Anna...Ezekiel...Ezra...Ambriel...Samandrial...Hannah...Theo..." Jack mumbled seeing each face in his mind as he concentrated on seeking them out and putting a spark of life back into each of them.
Sam and Dean watched Jack as he stiffened and began to breath faster. Sweat began to bead up on his forehead and trickle down his face as his power radiated faster and harder making Sam and Dean stumble from the room. It was more than a human could handle.
"Are you feeling disoriented and sick?" Dean asked Sam as he gulped down the bile in the back of his throat.
"Big time. We may need to go outside..." Sam gasped as he stumbled toward the stairs, holding a hand to his mouth.
Dean only nodded and headed up behind him and fell out the door with Sam to gulp in fresh air and let his head clear. He leaned over with his hands on his knees as he drew in deep breaths.
"You feeling better bro?" Sam asked wiping his face on his shirt sleeve as his breathing slowed and his head cleared.
"Man, did you feel the power coming from Jack? I've never felt anything like that except when Amara was released and she flexed her power and even then it didn't feel like that."
"Did you see Jack, he was draining himself doing that. What if it kills him? We should stop him."
"Cas would know if he's in trouble. We need to trust him," Dean replied. "You know what this world would be like if all those souls from Heaven rained down on the Earth at one time as ghosts. It would be total chaos and I don't think anything we did would make this place livable."
"I know, I'm just worried for him is all," Sam said looking back toward the bunker.
The wait seemed to take forever but was less than twenty minutes. They both turned when the creaking of the door sounded behind them, letting them know that someone was coming out.
"You can come back in now," Castiel told them. "He's done."
"How's Jack?" Sam asked as he hurried back inside and down the steps.
He didn't answer until Dean and him were in the library where Sam looked around for Jack.
"I took him to bed. He is weak and it will take some time for him to recover after what he did," Castiel answered Sam.
"But he will be okay, right Cas?"
"I believe so. Jack used almost all his power to wake the angels but it will build back up."
"So what now, we wait to see if the big ugly boots them out?" Dean asked.
"Yes. I told Gabriel all I could and it's up to him now to cause enough pain for the Entity to want them gone. At least I hope that's what It'll do. It was painful and annoying for me to be awake. So now if eleven angels are up moving around that should be excruciating for the Entity."
"Well if anyone can be a royal pain in the ass I'd say Gabriel fits the bill," Dean laughed, remembering how Gabriel pissed them off over the years.
"Yeah, he can pull this off. We just need to have a little faith in him," Sam added.
"I have been praying to God hoping he might give us a little help here. I don't think He would want Heaven to fail anymore than we do. I know He's off with Amara, but I still think He hears our prays," Cas commented.
"Yeah, I wouldn't count on him," Dean grunted remembering how bad things were before Chuck ever really decided to help. He didn't hold much faith in him after all that had happened previously.
spn
After Gabriel ended his talk with Castiel, he began to walk around in the Empty looking for any of his brothers and sisters. Castiel was right; it seemed he was being drawn in a certain direction like there was a homing beacon guiding him. He saw movement up ahead of him and hurried toward it.
"Hey bro, you okay?" he asked as he drew closer.
"What is this place?" Joshua asked as he looked down at his hands and around at the bleakness and emptiness surrounding them.
"Joshua, Keeper of the Gardens. Nice to see you," Gabriel greeted him.
"I know you, Gabriel isn't it? You never visited the Garden much. Although most of the archangels didn't. It is nice to meet you, but I am not sure the circumstances are that...Pleasant."
"Yeah, well that wasn't one of my hangouts true, right now we've got to find the others 'cause Heaven is in trouble," Gabriel told him. "Seems too many of us have kicked the bucket."
"That is not good, but what others? I see no others."
"They are here, can't you feel the tug? The others are not far away."
Joshua closed his eyes for a moment and let his senses spread out around him. "Yes, yes they are around us."
"So we need to rally the troops 'cause the big guy over this place is not going to like us being awake."
"Are we going to have to fight?"
"I'm hoping to avoid that with my witty charm," Gabriel shrugged, patting him on the shoulder as they continued on through the place in search of others.
spn
"Hello can anyone hear me?" a female voice called out as she carefully walked through the darkness. It seemed her body gave off just enough light for her to see in front of her. She was ever aware of the vast emptiness around her wondering if it ever ended.
"Hello..." a soft voice called to her.
"I hear you, stay where you are I'll come to you," she said. She walked faster toward where the voice came from and saw a dimness ahead of her. "Hello I'm here."
A teenager turned to look at her with fright in his eyes. "Where are we?"
"It's okay, I'm Anna and you are...Samandrial right?" she questioned.
"Yes, but I don't understand? I died and ceased to exist. How is this possible?"
"I don't know, I was killed too, but something brought us back."
"Could it be God? Has he come back?" he asked hopefully.
"I'm thinking if God did this He would not have left us here, wherever here is," she replied looking around.
"I don't like this place, it seems to want to pull my light from me."
"Fight it! We can't let it overcome us. There has to be a reason we are awake. Come with me, let's see if there are others," she said taking his arm and guiding him along with her.
"Is that someone ahead of us?" Samandrial asked pointing to what looked like a shimmer of light.
"I think you are right. Stay behind me and let me see who it is," she said as they moved closer to the small light ahead of them.
A figure turned as they approached and Anna straightened up taller and smiled. "Ezekiel, it is good to see you."
"Anna, I have not seen you since we last fought together. Do you know what is going on? I know this is not anywhere in Heaven and it is not on the Earth either."
"I'm not sure, but there were rumors eons ago of a place that angels went if they died and this might be it."
"My last memory was plunging to Earth after being expelled from Heaven and burning up."
"The angels were expelled from Heaven?" she questioned in shock. "I have missed quiet a bit since I was killed it seems."
"I think we should keep moving. I have a feeling there are others out there."
"I agree. Samandrial it is good to see you once again," Ezekiel spoke softly to the young angel.
"And I you," Samandrial replied bowing humbly to the angel. He knew his place among the angels and was respectful of it.
"Let's continue," Anna told them not wanting to stay in one place too long. She had a sense it was not safe and if there were others, they needed to find them.
They moved cautiously on through the blackness searching until they heard voices ahead of them. Anna held up her hand for them to stop and listened trying to hear who the voices belonged to. She moved them closer and was surprised when one of the voices spoke to her.
"Well Anna, long time no see. How's it been for you?" Gabriel asked.
Anna squinted and stopped short when she saw the archangel drawing closer.
"Gabriel?" she asked in surprise when she recognized his grace.
"In the flesh," he beamed. "It seems the flock is finding each other. This is good saves us trying to track you all down. It seems we still have a few missing ones."
"Do you know what's going on here? How we got here and what is going on?"
"The how part is easy, we died and this is the Empty."
"Are we supposed to be awake? Why is it just us?" Anna asked.
"You remember Castiel right? He fell to help the Winchesters save the world. Well now our home is in danger and needs saving."
"You mean Heaven?" Anna replied.
"What is happening to Heaven?" Ezekiel asked.
They were interrupted as other angels started making their way toward them following the light that was growing around them since they were together.
"Okay, let's see if we're missing anyone," Gabriel announced as he started to count the angels standing around him. "One, two, three...and I make eleven. The gangs all here and I think its time to meet the beast," he said turning when a black form started forming from the darkness of the floor. It grew and took shape until it stood before the angels. "Well if you're not one handsome sonovabitch," Gabriel laughed when he stared at his own face. The angels behind him took defensive positions not sure what was going on since Gabriel hadn't got a chance to tell them.
A/N: Of course Gabriel would be the logical choice to rile someone up. All have gathered and hope they can get back to the Earth. Thank you for taking this journey with me. Reviews are great if you can leave one. NC