"Brother," Abaddon said, kneeling before Lucifer on the glass covered floor.

"Please," Lucifer said, pulling her up to stand before him. "You're an angel. I would never make my sister kneel to me like a common demon."

"So Azazel found a way to release you. He said he would - so many of our brothers and sisters doubted him, but I never did."

Lucifer smiled and stroked Abaddon's hair. "Azazel did not release me himself, but he was instrumental in finding my true vessel…"

"Was? He is dead?"

Lucifer nodded sadly. "Killed by Michael's true vessel."

"Then Michael's vessel must die."

Lucifer smiled once more. "Welcome home, sister."

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"Crowley, so help me, I'm going to smite your ass the minute I get out of this thing!" Gabriel growled.

A smile crossed the lips of the bank manager. "Now, now, don't get your feathers in a bunch. I just want to talk, darling. I have something that you need."

"You have nothing that anyone needs…"

"Now you're just being spiteful. A little bird told me that you were helping Winchester Jumbo Sized, so I figured you'd need some help since you're going after the horsemen's rings. I can give you the whereabouts of Pestilence."

"I know where Pestilence is, dumb-ass… I don't need you to help me find him."

"Ah, so you are going after the horsemen's rings!"

Gabriel could have kicked himself for telling Crowley that his plan was to go after Pestilence's ring, but he smiled, and said to Crowley, "Yeah, it's gonna be a blast. You should come along - maybe you can catch a nice dose of the clap - among other things."

A slight twitching of Crowley's eyebrow was a giveaway to Gabriel that Crowley thought that he had the archangel at his mercy, and Crowley quickly countered with, "Ah, but do you know where Death is?"

Now that, Gabriel had to admit to himself, could be useful information. He knew that Death was bound to do Lucifer's bidding because of the massacre his brother had committed in Carthage, Missouri - but one of Gabriel's sources told him that Death was not strictly tethered to Lucifer's side, and would pop up in odd places all over the Earth. Yet there was no rhyme or reason to Death's appearances that Gabriel could figure out.

"What's it going to cost me, Crowley?" Gabriel asked, taking a Tootsie Roll out of his pocket and unwrapping it.

"First, you have to promise not to smite me the minute I take that bracelet off," Crowley said.

"How about I give you a head start, say to Queensland?"

Crowley tsk-ed. "Now, really, angel, do you think I'm going to give up such valuable information for just one little thing?"

"What else do you want, Crowley?"

"Protection from your brother…"

Gabriel snorted. "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you send the Winchesters to kill him."

"Well, how was I to know that the bleeding Colt wouldn't work on him! Lilith wanted the thing badly enough!"

"Oh, please! She totally set you up! She knew you were a snivelling little traitor who'd try to stab her in the back the first chance you got! I guess it never occurred to you that she was Luci's favorite pet for a reason?"

When he noted Crowley's chagrined expression, Gabriel laughed. " Really? You fell for her Luci's biggest fangirl act?" He laughed again. "Well, okay, she does have it bad for him - but you of all people should know she's been using her wiles in his service since, well, forever! And you should know that Lilith just loves people to think that she's just a pretty, vapid..."

"Gloating is so unattractive, Gabriel," Crowley grumbled.

"And I don't like pissant crossroads demons who waste my time," Gabriel replied. "Release me and I'll let you live… this time. Final offer."

"You arrogant little archangel... who do you..."

"If I were you, Crowley, I'd hurry before Thor gets back. He tends to smash first, and… well. he likes smashing things. He especially likes smashing demons… although using Vili as a distraction was pretty smart. Kudos." Gabriel grinned and popped the Tootsie Roll into his mouth. "I'd give you an actual Kudo bar, but an upstart crossroads demon seems to have …"

"Okay! Fine!" Crowley yelled. "Death's going to be in New Orleans, on the 18th! Tomorrow!"

"Now see how easy that was?" Gabriel asked.

"Screw you," Crowley said. "I'm out of here." Crowley straightened out the hem of the bank manager's dress. "And for the record, I've never sniveled about anything in my life."

Gabriel held up his arm. "You seem to be forgetting something."

Crowley smiled. "Sorry, Luv...Remember? Head start to Queensland?"

With that, Crowley smoked out of the bank manager. Red smoke poured into an overhead vent and out of the building. The woman slumped to the ground.

There were loud, thudding footsteps, then Thor appeared in the doorway. "That traitor Vili got away!" Thor shouted. "I'm going to destroy him!"

"Later, big guy," Gabriel said. "Let's get this bracelet off me, and get this lady to safety."

Thor came over to Gabriel, and stopped as he looked at the golden bracelet on his arm. "I cannot remove that brother. Our Father made that to constrain the power of an archangel -and the sigils prevent an angel, an archangel or any being inhabited by one of the host from opening it."

"Wonderful," Gabriel said. "Wonder how Crowley was able to get the bank manager to put it on me? A demon shouldn't have been able to touch the thing..."

"She was possessed by Crowley?" Thor asked. "I have heard of him… the self-styled King of the Crossroad demons..."

"Oh, I'm sure the little jerk will be flattered you've heard of him," Gabriel said, heading towards the bank manager.

"It is said that he trades not just in souls, but in knowledge - the more arcane, the better. He is a dangerous adversary…"

"Not recently," Gabriel said, trying to peer with his powers at the woman, and failing. "Okay, it seems that I'm on lock-down…"

"Let me," Thor said, kneeling beside the woman. He touched her forehead gently and her whole body was suffused with a golden light that gently faded away.

The woman stirred and opened her eyes. "Mr. Thorson?" she whispered.

Thor smiled at her and helped her to her feet. "I'm glad to see you well. I was afraid, when the door was blown off its hinges…"

"What?"

Gabriel stood up and dusted his suit off. "Someone tried to rob the bank…"

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, running out of the vault.

"We should leave," Thor said.

"She's going to remember that…"

"No, she won't," Thor said. "And I've already taken care of the cameras and recording devices."

Gabriel let out a snort. "I am a bad influence on you!"

"I like to think of it as learning from an expert," Thor replied. He slapped Gabriel on the shoulder. "I think we could both use some coffee and cinnamon rolls."

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Ellen, Jo and Mary looked at the holographic figure of Gabriel that Ash held in his outstretched hand.

"I'm the Archangel Gabriel - you may know me from such works as the Ghent altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck, and that Constantine movie with Keanu Reeves, where I was portrayed by Tilda Swinton. Yeah, okay, maybe in one of my past incarnations I looked like that, but today? I'm all boy!"

"Anyway, if you're watching this, you've probably said to Ash, 'Ash, you're a hoopy frood, but you are cray-cray crazy if you think I'm believing you were sent on a mission from the Archangel Gabriel to stop the Apocalypse!"

"Well, he's not crazy, and he has been sent by yours truly! And I need you -" And here, Gabriel manifested himself in the outfit of the old Smokey the Bear ranger outfits - "to help stop the Apocalypse!"

"What I need you to do is to help Ash gather as many souls as you can to help create a third front. You've been chosen because we've heard that you're not exactly happy with what's going on down on Earth, and unlike the other nice people up here, you actually give a crap that the world is coming to an end. I know that this is not going to be easy for you - I know you thought that you'd come to your eternal rest - but if you can sit by and let the Earth burn, then I don't want to know you!" And here, Gabriel gave a harsh glare. Then he smiled. "But I know you won't do that."

Ash pressed the button again, and the scene skipped. Gabriel was smiling, and he waved. "Greetings, programs! So you've decided to join our ragtag band of misfits! Good for you! Now that you've sworn the Secret Pledge and received your Secret Decoder rings, Ash will take you to see Joshua and he will inform you about the rest of the plan. Don't bother asking Ash - he doesn't know. But Ash knows that Joshua can be trusted. And I trust Joshua with my life. So welcome to the team - Team Earth!" The holographic Gabriel gave two thumbs up, and winked.

After Gabriel's message finished playing, Ash put the disc back into his pocket, and he looked at Mary, Jo and Ellen.

"Is he serious?" Jo asked. "Seriously? Is he serious?"

"Oh, as a heart attack," Ash said.

"We're supposed to gather up an army?" Ellen asked.

Ash nodded. "Big guy has a plan. Only drawback is that Naomi is more than likely knows we have a plan, which is why her goons are after us."

"Wonderful," Ellen replied. "So what do we do now?"

"We should continue with the plan, while we can," Mary answered. "Gabriel said we should seek out this Joshua. Who is he? Can he be trusted?"

Ash smiled. "Oh, I think he's about the only angel left in Heaven who can still be trusted."

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A/N: "Hoopy frood" comes from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams!

Okay, okay. They don't really use dates in the Supernatural universe, so I'm going to assume that the date the episode aired is when the events in it actually happened. Which places the whole "Dean accepts Michael" just a week after Easter on April 15, 2010 (but two days pass in the story, so it's actually April 13-15th in-universe.) Gabriel dies on April 22nd , a week later, in the episode "Hammer of the Gods." The episode, "Two Minutes to Midnight" where the boys fight Pestilence (and meet Death) takes place just four days after Sam's birthday (May 2nd), on May 6th.

If you've noticed so far in the story, we're coming to the end of the second day, placing this chapter on April 17th. Which means it's a Saturday, and that means last chapter I screwed up when I said the bank closed at three pm. Because being a Saturday, they would close at noon - if they were open at all! Curses!

And this is also a roundabout way of answering 36sakuya76's query about Dean having three pairs of wings back in Chapter Six. It was a screw-up on my part - but! like the bank screw up, I'm going to work around it. So what was originally me not remembering to go back and change the number of wings, actually is significant now. So thanks for pointing that out!

And we know that Death WAS going to be in Chicago on May 6th in the canon 'verse, but hey, things have now changed because Gabriel is leading an army to stop the Apocalypse, and he's planning to intercept Pestilence and Death weeks earlier. Will Gabriel still die on April 22nd or has that changed as well? I hope you'll keep reading and see what happens!

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and followed and favorited and PM'd me about this story! I really am glad you're all enjoying it so far!