Here's the last Changing Channels chapter! Hope ya'll like it!
"I'm worried, man. What that SOB did to Cas. You know, where is he?" Dean says after brushes his teeth and spitting into the sink. He receives no response and he walks over to the door peering out into the room. "Sam?"
Dean looks around, but save for Gracilynn passed out in one of the beds, the room is empty.
"Where are you?" he asks, getting a bad feeling in his stomach. He quickly puts his toothbrush away and goes back out into the room. He grabs his jacket and keys and opens the door.
"You had so better not be thinking about leaving me here by myself again," Gracilynn says from the bed. Dean halts midway through the door and looks back at his daughter, still sprawled out on the bed, eyes still closed. He begins to think he was hearing things when she pops open one eye and fixes him with a stern look.
"You're getting too good at that," Dean accuses.
"I had a good teacher," Gracilynn says, not moving besides opening her other eye.
"I didn't teach you that," Dean argues.
"I learned through observation," Gracilynn says, smirking. Dean huffs.
"Well, let's go then," he says, waving her on and holding the door open for her. Gracilynn jumps out of the bed and, grabbing her own coat, walks out the door shooting a cocky look at her dad on the way out. Someone's feeling cocky today Dean thinks. Then something else comes to mind. Wow, is this how everyone else feels when I give them that look? Dean shakes his head and shuts the door behind him.
Dean heads to the car, his phone to his ear already, sighing in aggravation when all he gets is Sam's voicemail. He looks up at Gracilynn already in the front seat, watching him. He climbs in to the drivers' seat, shutting the door behind him.
"Sam. It's me. Where the hell did you go?" Dean says into the phone, snapping it shut when he's done. Gracilynn looks over at him.
"Voicemail?" she asks.
"Yeah," Dean says, tossing her his phone, "Here, keep calling."
Gracilynn catches the phone easily, startling when she hears her uncle's voice coming from inside the car.
"Dean?" he asks in a weird voice. Dean looks around the car, not seeing his brother anywhere, his eyes falling on his daughter who looks just as confused.
"Sam? Where are you?" Dean asks.
"I don't know," is the reply.
"Well, that's helpful," Gracilynn says, watching the radio. Dean looks where she is and notices a red light flashing in time with Sam's words. He looks over at Gracilynn who has come to the same realization.
"Dude, are you…?" Gracilynn says, staring at the radio.
"Oh crap. I don't think we killed the Trickster," Sam says.
"Now why would you say that?" Gracilynn asks sarcastically.
"You'd better watch yourself Shortstuff," Sam says, "Even as a car I'm bigger than you."
A few minutes later, Gracilynn finds herself chuckling to herself. Dean looks over at her, confused.
"What?" Dean and Sam say at the same time.
"Nothing," Gracilynn says, smirking.
"What?" Dean asks more forcibly.
"I was just thinking," Gracilynn starts.
"Well, that's never a good thing," Sam says.
"I was just thinking," Gracilynn starts again, "That it's a good thing the trickster didn't turn you in to a clown car huh Uncle Sammy? I mean, you could have like ten clown inside of you all at once."
"Bite me," Sam says as Dean chuckles and Gracilynn smirks at her own joke.
"Okay, stake didn't work. So, what, this is another trick?" Dean thinks aloud as he drives down the road.
"I don't know. Maybe the stake didn't work because it's not a trickster?" Sam says through the speakers.
"What do you mean?" Dean asks.
"You heard Cas. He said this thing was too powerful to be a trickster," Sam points out.
"And did you notice the way he looked at Cas? Almost like he knew him," Dean adds.
"And how pissed he got when you brought up Michael and Lucifer," Sam continues.
"And how they fought like brothers," Gracilynn chimes in getting a look from Dean, "Dude, I have seen you two fight…numerous times."
Dean thinks about everything for a second as Gracilynn goes quiet, trying not to think about watching her uncle walk away and climb into that truck again.
"Son of a bitch," Dean says. Gracilynn turns to look at him.
"What?" Sam and Gracilynn ask.
"I think I know what we're dealing with," Dean says.
The Impala is parked in Centennial Point Wilderness Area, with its' trunk open. Dean is rummaging around in it trying to find something while Gracilynn is sitting on the bumper next to him.
"Dean?" Sam says.
"What?" Dean says.
"That, uh, feels really uncomfortable," Sam says.
"Well, if you didn't have so much junk in your trunk Uncle Sam…" Gracilynn says, smirking again. Dean smirks himself, shutting the trunk.
"Ow. You sure this is gonna work?" Sam says, ignoring his niece. She had been on his case the whole car ride and she wasn't going to let up.
"No, but I have no other ideas," Dean says, going to the front of the car and shouting at the sky, "All right, you son of a bitch! Uncle! We'll do it!"
"Should I honk?" Sam asks. Gracilynn snorts, leaning on the hood of the Impala. "Really Gracilynn?"
"Wow. Sam. Get a load of the rims on you," the trickster says, appearing out of nowhere.
"Eat me," Sam replies.
"Okay, boys. Ready to go quietly?" the trickster asks. Gracilynn crosses her arms in front of her.
"Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast. Nobody's going anywhere until Sam has opposable thumbs," Dean says.
"What's the difference? Satan's going to ride his ass one way or another," the trickster says earning a look from Dean and Gracilynn. The trickster rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers resulting in the Kitt lights to go out. Sam opens the door and climbs out of the front passenger seat. "Happy?"
"Tell me one thing. Why didn't the stake kill you?" Dean asks.
"I am the trickster."
"Or maybe you're not," Dean challenges. Sam holds up a flaming cigarette lighter and throws it to the ground, a ring of fire appearing around the trickster. "Maybe you've always been an angel."
"A what?" the trickster says, looking incredulously at them and laughing. "Somebody slip a mickey in your power shake, kid?"
"I'll tell you what. You just jump out of the holy fire and we'll call it our mistake," Dean says, earning another laugh from the trickster, who then abruptly stops. Suddenly they're back in the warehouse again, the trickster clapping for them.
"Well played, boys. Well played. Where'd you get the holy oil?" he says.
"Well, you might say we pulled it out of Sam's ass," Dean says, earning a smirk from his daughter.
"Where'd I screw up?" the trickster asks.
"You didn't. Nobody gets the jump on Cas like you did," Sam says.
"Mostly it was the way you talked about Armageddon," Dean says.
"Meaning?" the trickster asks.
"Well, call it personal experience, but nobody gets that angry unless they're talking about their own family," Dean says, glancing at Gracilynn quickly before looking back at the trickster.
"So which one are you? Grumpy, Sneezy, or Douchey?" Sam asks.
"Gabriel, okay? They call me Gabriel."
"Gabriel? The archangel?" Sam asks.
"Guilty."
"Okay, Gabriel. How does an archangel become a trickster?" Dean asks.
"My own private witness protection. I skipped out of heaven, had a face transplant, carved out my own little corner of the world. Till you two screwed it all up," Gabriel answers.
"What did Daddy say when you ran off and joined the pagans?" Dean asks.
"Daddy doesn't say anything about anything," Gabriel says, miffed.
"Then what happened? Why'd you ditch?" Sam asks.
"Do you blame him? I mean, his brothers are heavyweight douchenozzles," Dean adds.
"Shut your cakehole. You don't know anything about my family. I love my father, my brothers. Love them. But watching them turn on each other? Tear at each other's throats? I couldn't bear it! Okay? So I left. And now it's happening all over again," Gabriel says angrily.
"Then help us stop it," Sam says.
"It can't be stopped," says Gabriel, earning a scoff from Gracilynn. Gabriel gives her a look.
"You wanna see the end of the world?" Dean asks, directing the attention back on them.
"I want it to be over! I have to sit back and watch my own brothers kill each other thanks to you two! Heaven, hell, I don't care who wins, I just want it to be over," Gabriel responds.
"It doesn't have to be like that. There has to be some way to, to pull the plug," Sam says, earning a laugh from Gabriel.
"You do not know my family. What you guys call the apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner. That's why there's no stopping this, because this isn't about a war. It's about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You'd think you'd be able to relate," Gabriel says.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asks.
"You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father, and Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of Daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other," Gabriel says.
"What the hell are you saying," Dean asks. Gracilynn has already put two and two together and sharply sucks in a breath. Dean glances at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Sounds like the youngest Winchester has figured it out. Why do you think I've always taken such an interest in you? Because from the moment Dad flipped on the lights around here, we knew it was all gonna end with you. Always," Gabriel says, glancing at Gracilynn quickly himself. There is a long pause and then Dean and Sam look down then at each other.
"No. That's not gonna happen," Dean says.
"I'm sorry. But it is," Gabriel says matter-of-factly, sighing. "Guys. I wish this were a TV show. Easy answers, endings wrapped up in a bow...but this is real, and it's gonna end bloody for all of us. That's just how it's gotta be."
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