Gabriel blinked in confusion. Or rather tried to blink in confusion, it's kind of hard to blink when you don't have human eyes. Angelic eyes never closed. Gabriel realized that somehow he had become discorporated from his vessel.
Gabriel came to a second realization he was for all intents and purposes, naked. He reached out to find his vessel and couldn't sense it anywhere that he could reach it. It was in the cage and he was out of it. "Uh Dad, I think I need a little help here. I mean every angel, demon and supernatural creature within earshot can sense me."
Castiel watched as Delores cast the last warding around Garth. The entire group jumped in alarm as a familiar blonde haired angel popped into their midst, sprinkled something into the bowl he was holding and muttered an incantation.
"Kind of unnerving isn't it you old fossil." Balthazar said with a smirk.
"Balthazar! What the hell?" Dean yelled "You're supposed to be dead, so yeah, Having dead angel's pop up out of nowhere is unnerving as hell!"
"I wasn't talking to you Winchester." Balthazar snarked.
"He was speaking to Gabriel." Castiel said.
"I thought Gabriel was in the cage." Sam said.
"He was, something pulled him out." Balthazar explained. "Without his vessel, so he's glowing like a supernatural neon sign."
"So why doesn't he just get back inside his vessel?" Dean asked.
"Because his vessel is in the cage."
Everyone turned around to see what looked like a teenaged girl standing behind them.
"You!" Dean gasped.
"Yes me." The girl smiled. "Our paths just seem to keep crossing don't they Dean Winchester? But it is not you I have come to see this time." She turned toward Sam. "I have come to speak to Samuel."
"Well, with your permission Father I'll get back to the task that you called me back for." Balthazar said.
"Yes Balthazar go." She turned toward Castiel. "Castiel, Gabriel and I wish to speak to Samuel alone. You will take the others and explain the situation to them."
"As you wish father." Castiel said before urging everyone out of the panic room.
Sam was looking at the being in front of him and trying to reconcile it with the mental idea that he had always had of 'God'.
"I'm not what you expected? It's just a temporary vessel." God said. "You have been a vessel Samuel and I understand that it was not the most pleasant of experiences. But you were born to contain the grace of an Archangel. And I am here to ask you to do so again."
"I'm not saying yes to Lucifer." Sam said.
"I would never ask you to host that particular child of mine again. I'm asking you to say yes to Gabriel." God said.
"Okay Cas, what the hell?" Dean said "Talk to Sam in private?"
"Gabriel is in his true form." Castiel explained. "You cannot perceive him but every angel and demon can. Which means Dagon can. There is no way for an angel to mask their grace outside of a vessel."
"So Dagon can find him as he is now." Delores said.
"Yes, he must have a vessel in order to hide himself. But he is an Archangel, the choice of vessels that can contain him is, limited." Castiel said. "The vessel must be descended from both Cain and Abel."
"No! Sam is not saying yes to him!" Dean started to head toward the panic room door when Castiel grabbed him.
"Do not revert to your old ways Dean. It is Sam's decision not yours." Castiel said. "Father will explain to him what I am trying to explain to you. If Gabriel is not contained and very quickly Dagon will find him and he will discover how to open the cage. Is that what you want? You know where that will lead."
Dean yanked his arm from Cas' grip and punched the wall putting a fist sized hole in the drywall. "Son of a bitch! Why is it that we keep getting screwed by you angels? No matter how hard I try to protect him, you all just come along and everything goes to hell."
The door opened and Sam leaned casually against the frame, he snapped his fingers producing a chocolate chip granola bar. "Maybe you need to stop trying to protect Sam and let him grow up, Bucko." Sam said taking a bite out of the granola bar before making a face. "Ugh! That's terrible. It tastes like wood chips!"
"Gabriel." Dean said flatly.
"Yep, Damn you're shorter than me for once!" Gabriel said looking at Dean's bloody knuckles for a second before snapping his fingers again repairing the drywall and fixing Dean's injured hand.
"What happened Gabriel?" Castiel asked. "Balthazar said that something yanked you out of the cage."
"Not something, someone." Gabriel said a look of grief crossed Sam's face. "Kali, Dagon found her. She destroyed the link that she had created with the blood spell. It pulled me out of the cage and when I finally figured out where I was, I realized I was at the Elysian and all my gorgeous angelic junk was hanging out in the breeze. My vessel was stuck in the Cage with Mikey and Luci and me with no way to get to it. I called Dad and now here I am wearing a Winchester."
"Sam's not your true vessel, I saw what happened to Nick. You going to start burning through Sam like Lucifer did with Nick?" Dean asked.
"Naw, Sammy here is built 'Ford tough'. He was born to contain the grace of a very powerful Archangel and If Luci won't burn through him, I won't." Gabriel said. "Nick was from a vessel bloodline but not the vessel bloodline. He could contain Cas or Balthazar, any of the Seraphs much like Adam, but they were not born like the two of you. Only you and Sam were created to contain the grace of Archangels, not to mention the two most powerful of the Archangels."
"This is your fault!" Michael yelled at Lucifer. "You and your bright ideas."
"Shut up Michael!" Lucifer yelled back. "Nothing we were doing could have caused this! Gabriel is missing that should be our focus not laying blame."
"Can the two of you ever not find a reason to fight?" God asked as she materialized in the cage. "I would think that knowing how much he hates it when you fight, you would at least refrain from making him the reason that you fight."
"Father!" Michael said. "Gabriel, we can't sense him he's not here anymore but his vessel is."
"Yes I'm aware. Gabriel is fine. He's safely inside a temporary vessel, Sam Winchester." God said.
"What happened." Lucifer asked.
"Gabriel was careless enough to allow a pagan goddess to place a blood spell on his vessel." God said placing her hand on the vessel's chest.
"Kali?" Lucifer asked. "I should have killed her."
"She was captured by the Fallen. Dagon probed her mind and came across the blood connection. She acted swiftly to sever it before Dagon could make use of it." God said. "Dagon was enraged by her actions, and killed her. She was a pagan but she held honest affection for your brother and gave her life to protect him."
God smiled as the vessel's chest began to rise and fall in a regular rhythm. "He will need this vessel once everything is over. The two of you will care for it.
Dagon looked around the ballroom of the ruined hotel. In the split second he had touched the blood link it had led him to this place. This Elysian Fields hotel. He had followed the link here to this room where the faint impression of wings was scorched into the floor.
Gabriel had fallen here but the fact that the link had been intact was proof that Gabriel had not died. Or if he had Father had brought him back from Death. Gabriel had slipped through his fingers.