Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Ninjakittee, Maddy Love Castiel, FireChildSlytherin5, RachelPhobia, Pizzapig, Keefer, CherylB1964, Nikkilouise, bowie36, witch20, XxZessxX, Yana5, kb18142, Lovely Rain Dancer, FictionalNutter and ruvy91 for last chapter's reviews!

36

Dean knew that Raphael probably wouldn't want to kill him. When Castiel had explained the situation to all of them he had stressed that both vessels were needed for the apocalypse to happen as it was supposed to. Not that that did anything to make the older Winchester feel better about the entire situation. Getting captured and being locked away somewhere awaiting the moment when they'd make him into an angel condom wasn't better than death, after all.

Unfortunately, Dean was all too aware of the fact that he was nearly completely defenseless against their opponent as well. Sure, their entire team lacked any sort of weapon to really do damage to the archangel, but all the others had more or less meager means to protect themselves with. Being the one human in a fight between angels and part-angels really sucked.

Also, had he mentioned that Hel of all people had moved in front of him protectively? Yes, the one chick of the group was standing between Dean and Raphael. The older Winchester was man enough to admit that he wasn't man enough not to be bothered by that just a little.

"I won't tell Sam, if that's what you're worried about," the goddess commented casually, never taking her eyes off the archangel who had yet to make a move against them.

"You're only saying that, 'cause you know one of your brothers will blab," Dean huffed. To tell the truth, if they all – of course, including Sam and Gabriel – were alive by the end of this, he'd almost gladly take the mocking that might come after sharing that story.

The quiet before the storm had lasted nearly too long already and Raphael obviously thought so as well. The archangel took a few steps toward the group, giving each one of them a long look before he spoke.

"Resistance is futile," Raphael stated matter-of-factly, "Surrender now and I'll give you all quick and painless deaths."

Dean was sure that he was excluded from that offer, but it didn't look like any of the others were even thinking about taking it, anyway. Not that the older Winchester had expected anything else. He had known Castiel for quite some time it had become clear very quickly that the angel was a person who'd never bow to a cause he didn't believe in. Dean might not have known the three pagans quite that well, but there was no doubt that every single one of them possessed a lot of integrity. While the older Winchester still wouldn't turn his back to Gabriel without expecting the worst, he somehow had come to trust his children.

Dean hadn't even finished his last thought before Jörmungandr started to laugh.

"You really know nothing about us Norse people, do you?" he asked Raphael, still chuckling. There was no chance any respectable Viking would have chosen not to go down fighting, if it was in their power to decide. His two siblings agreed wholeheartedly. They knew that they were part angels now, but that didn't change the fact that they had grown up and lived among the Norse pagans for all their lives. If they could have chosen only one of their two heritages, it was no secret which one they would go with.

"You better bring it on before we die of old age," Fenrir added with one of his wolfish smirks. This probably wasn't going to end well for them, but waiting for the inevitable any longer wouldn't change anything about that. Realistically, looking at the greater picture, they weren't the ones having the important battle, anyway.

"As you wish," Raphael sneered and just like that all hell broke loose.

Sam instinctively raised the blade that had been given to him when he was suddenly relocated. It took a few moments before he fully realized what had just happened to him, but as soon as his eyes and brain were cooperating again it became all too clear where Raphael had sent him. Even though the younger Winchester knew that he couldn't kill Lilith under any circumstances, he still gripped his weapon tighter.

"Nice to meet you again, Sam," the demon smirked, letting her eyes flash white for a few long moments, "Always delighted to have one of your loved ones at my mercy."

If there had been any doubt that the rumors Raphael had told her about were true, it was gone the moment she had seen the younger Winchester's expression after she had made her statement. The little affair the two men were obviously having would make it much easier to convince Sam to kill her against his better judgment.

Gabriel rolled his eyes dramatically, once more trying to at least get free from the gag Lilith had put on him earlier. The indignity of his position really knew no bounds. Alright, it might have been worse. He might have been without pants and with a stupid hat on or something alike on top of everything.

"Let him go," Sam demanded in a dangerously low tone.

To mock him, the demon immediately grabbed a fistful of Gabriel's hair and pulled his head back as far as it would go. The archangel couldn't help the strangled noise that escaped him at the move. He quickly bit his tongue so he wouldn't make any more sounds, however.

Gabriel was so close to breaking his bonds, he could feel the effect they were having on him getting weaker already. It wasn't long until he could hopefully take care of all this, but everything would have been for nothing, if Sam gave in before he got free.

"Or what?" Lilith asked in a faked innocently intrigued tone, "I don't think you are in a position to threaten me."

After all, what would the human threaten her with? Death? That was what she wanted and they all knew it. He couldn't turn around and walk away, either. Even if Sam could have brought himself to turn his back on his lover, there were still spells and good old locks making sure that he couldn't simply leave.

"I won't kill you, no matter what you do," the younger Winchester stated with conviction. He knew what was at stake, he knew Dean, Gabriel and the others were counting on him having enough control over himself not to let the demon get to him. The problem was that he already felt the beginnings of niggling doubt forming. There was only so much he would be able to stand and he knew it. He could no more stand by and watch Lilith torture and kill Gabriel than he would have been able to do nothing while Dean was dying, if she hadn't held him immobile at the time.

"Always with the useless promises, Sam," Lilith exhaled soundly, clicking her tongue a couple of times for emphasis, "'I won't kill you, even if you make me watch as you take him apart bit by bit.' Reminds me of a time when you promised to safe your brother no matter what."

Really, even though the demon had known that they couldn't get started with the preparations for Lucifer's return before Dean went to hell and broke the first seal for them, she had been nearly sorry that they hadn't given the older Winchester a year or two more just so they could watch his brother run in circles trying to get him out of his contract a little longer. In fact, she was sure that the younger Winchester would have succumbed to his own dark side just from that given the time. Things were going to work out just the way Raphael and Lilith wanted them to either way, however.

"Shut up," Sam basically growled, forcing his arm to stay down when it automatically wanted to raise the angel blade. He couldn't take the first step toward attack or he knew he'd take the others as well.

"Do you remember? It's been great fun watching the hellhounds-" the demon went on in a singsong tone and with all too obvious childish glee. She didn't have hellhounds at her disposal this time around and it was highly doubtful that they would have been quite as successful with tearing the archangel apart as they had been with the older Winchester, but that still left her with a great many options, especially if the younger Winchester continued to refuse to cooperate.

"Shut up!" Sam yelled uselessly. The demon's point about him not being able to raise a hand against her still stood. Technically, he could have hurt her as long as he didn't kill her, but the younger Winchester knew that it was much too risky to kill her accidentally or – who was he trying to kid – to get carried away in the heat of the moment.

"What are you going to do?" Lilith asked once more, releasing Gabriel and stalking toward Sam with slow, deliberate steps, "You know, if you aren't going to use that blade, I will."

The archangel didn't believe for a second that his older brother had given his own sword away. Sure, the blade the younger Winchester currently held could still hurt Gabriel, in his weakened state even hurt him severely, but it wouldn't kill him. Unfortunately Sam wouldn't know that, however.

The human tightened his grip on the weapon once more. His situation had just become worse and more hopeless once again. Not only wasn't he allowed to kill Lilith, he also couldn't let her get her hands on the angel blade. He hadn't even finished that thought when a flick of the demon's wrist sent him flying against the closest wall, however.

Lilith walked up to the younger Winchester, raising her hand to trap him against the wall with her powers when he struggled back to his feet.

"You can't kill me," Sam pressed through gritted teeth, barely managing to keep his hold on the angel blade. That at least was true, she couldn't kill him any more than he could kill her.

"But I can do to him whatever I want," Lilith whispered into the younger Winchester's ear, reaching forward as if to take the blade away from him. Her hand closed around Sam's wrist however, guiding his arm up until the tip of the weapon was touching her neck. He had to be the one to deal the blow on his own, but she could take the steps leading up to the main event out of his hands.

"You can do this now, or you can do this once you can't stand hearing him scream and seeing him die slowly anymore," the demon added, removing her hand from the younger Winchester's arm, noticing with some satisfaction that he didn't lower the blade, "3… 2…"

Castiel couldn't deny that he was surprised at how well they were holding their own against Raphael, all things considered. He was pretty sure that they would run out of luck soon enough, but the attacks his nephews threw at the archangel while Hel did her best to keep Dean out of the line of fire were downright chaotic and seemingly uncoordinated which threw their opponent off enough to make his counter attacks less effective.

Unfortunately, Castiel hadn't been able to launch any attacks himself yet, because he too had troubles anticipating what Fenrir and Jörmungandr would be doing at any given moment and so he was too likely to accidentally get in their way or even hurt one of them. He was moving along, trying to get a feel for their fighting style and waiting for the right moment to attack the entire time, however.

The one thing that was quite obvious was that the two pagans were trying to keep the fight away from their sister and the older Winchester as much as they could. As soon as Raphael noticed, he decided to up the game and focus his attacks into the direction of the human and the goddess. He didn't have to actually get to them to make the moves the other two would have to take more predictable than they currently were.

Hel hardly managed to grab Dean and throw the two of them out of the way before the archangel reached them. The older Winchester had used the one perfect moment he got to embed the demon killing knife in Raphael's side, trusting that the goddess would push him aside in time. He knew that the blow wouldn't do much to the archangel, but it had to hurt at least. Dean still felt pretty useless in the fight, but at least he had done as much as he could have.

When Raphael charged them the next time, Jörmungandr slung his arm around the archangel's throat from behind him, holding on just a moment too long which allowed his opponent to get a hold on him. He was more or less prepared to experience the pain Castiel had warned them about, if Raphael got his hands on them, but instead the archangel just threw him off his back, making him crash into the concrete wall.

Jörmungandr was still dazed when he realized what had happened. Fenrir had sunk his teeth into the archangel's thigh, keeping his jaws firmly locked even as his body shook under the onslaught of Raphael's powers.

Jörmungandr struggled to get back to his feet just as Hel got ready to charge, but Castiel beat them all to it this time. The angel threw himself against his older brother with enough force to dislodge Fenrir from Raphael's leg as the two angels fell into a heap a few feet away. The wolf fell to the floor, staying completely motionless. Jörmungandr immediately changed course to kneel next to his fallen sibling while Hel followed Dean to Castiel's side.

"Nobody would-" Raphael said, shock apparent in his voice as he lay on the floor, the angel blade his younger brother had been carrying lodged firmly in his chest.

"Gabriel did," Castiel replied, noticing with grim satisfaction that those words made the archangel's eyes widen a little more in shock. He extracted himself from his fallen brother just as Dean reached them and just a moment before white, blinding light announced Raphael's demise.

"It takes an archangel's blade to kill an archangel. Gabriel gave me his," Castiel explained, "We were hoping to have the element of surprise on our side like this. Unfortunately, it didn't work the way it should have."

Dean nodded absentmindedly, checking his angelic friend over for any sort of injury. It was only when he was convinced that Castiel was alright that he let what he had just heard sink in. The angels had had a plan B when they had first gone to speak to Raphael and while it had failed them completely the first time around, it had been invaluable in the end.

"Fenrir!" Hel suddenly exclaimed, turning on her heels to run back to her own injured – she refused to think of the alternative – brother.

The wolf was still lying on the floor motionlessly. The goddess nearly sobbed in relief when she got close enough to see that his chest was rising and falling, however. It only took a moment more before she was kneeling next to him, stroking over his head carefully. She wasn't exactly sure how much time passed until the wolf opened his eyes, but it couldn't have been nearly as long as it felt, because Dean and Castiel had only just reached them when it happened.

"Odin couldn't taste worse," Fenrir heavily slurred his first words, hardly managing to lift his head off the floor. His sister promptly assisted him, putting his head into her lap.

Both Dean and Castiel let out a deep breath. The older Winchester even chuckled, the leftover adrenaline from the fight making him feel just a little lightheaded but also lighthearted. Of course, there still was the greater problem of Sam being somewhere with Lilith and having the means to off her which she'd surely encourage with all means possible. Another issue only occurred to Dean a moment later. "Where's Jörm?"

"Last chance, Sam," Lilith stated, letting her eyes turn white again as she looked directly into the younger Winchester's eyes.

Gabriel had hoped that he would get just a few minutes to gather his strength once he managed to break the sigils on the handcuffs, but it looked like none of his plans could work out as they should these days. As things were he doubted that he had even seconds to spare.

Sam was completely focused on Lilith, the world around them becoming nothing more than a hardly existent background for their confrontation. The knowledge that he couldn't kill the demon had become harder and harder to hold on to as the hopelessness of the situation had increased. There was no getting away here. Even if he let Lilith kill Gabriel, she'd only go and find new ways to force his hand. There was no winning and if there was no way to win then he could at least cut the losses.

Before the younger Winchester could move a muscle Lilith was forcefully pulled away from him. The angel blade clattered as it fell out of his hand and onto the floor. The shame over what he had nearly done was quick to catch up with Sam, but he pushed it away. He'd have time for some self-loathing later. They still had a job to finish here.

"Why don't you give uncle Gabriel a hug?" the archangel suggested in a cold tone. He had slung his arm around Lilith's shoulders, giving the demon little room to move. Before she could even attempt to attack him, he slammed his palm against her forehead.

Gabriel's damaged grace painfully protested against being used this excessively, but he didn't let up until he had the demon and the human soul inside Callie's body completely separated from each other. He couldn't do much to safe the kid's life, but he could make sure that she got an express ticket to heaven, at least. The demon wouldn't be as lucky. Gathering his grace together enough to eradicate the damned thing once and for all hurt like he was being torn apart all over again and he wasn't quite sure what the long time effects of his actions would be, but this had to end here.

Sam had to close his eyes and turn away when blinding white light engulfed both Gabriel and Lilith. It only lasted for a few moments and when the younger Winchester turned around again the demon's host body was lying on the floor motionlessly while the archangel swayed on his feet.

"Woah," Sam exclaimed, hurrying to catch Gabriel before he hit the ground as well, "Are you okay?"

The archangel seemed conscious at least, even though killing Lilith had obviously taken a lot out of him.

"Yeah… No… not really… but it was worth it," Gabriel gave a lopsided grin, squeezing the younger Winchester's hand for a moment. He wasn't even in that bad a shape, all things considered, it really could have been worse.

The archangel barely had time to realize that his second born son had arrived before he suddenly felt a very painful pull on his grace. Gabriel gritted his teeth, his back bowing as he tried to fight the sensation, but in the end he had to succumb to it.

"Gabriel!" Sam called out, alarmed. The flash of light hadn't been quite as intense as the one before, but the archangel's body was completely limp in his arms. Jörmungandr came to kneel next to him instantly, checking his father's vital signs. When Gabriel's eyes began to flutter Jörmungandr quickly pressed his hand against his forehead and forced him back into unconsciousness, however.

"Why did you do that?" the younger Winchester demanded in a sharp tone.

"He is not… he is not inside," Jörmungandr explained tonelessly, "It's an empty vessel."

Unbeknownst to them, Dean had only just been quick enough to catch Castiel before the angel had collapsed, as well.