A/N: Sorry guys, I know it's been a while. I have had some issues with my eyes, and I learned I needed glasses. Got them two days ago, and it feels weird, but also kinda cool. As soon as I could focus and actually look at the screen for a longer period of time, I sat and I wrote. Hope you like this chapter.
Chapter 11: The missing ninja turtle
Gabriel's POV:
Gabriel always knew when to joke and when to be serious. And when to be seriously joking. "So, should I be calling you My Sugar Daddy?" He asked as Sam handed him the syrup for the pancakes the younger hunter made and received a murderous glare. And even if Sam was tapping into His Father's powers and this was a seriously fucked up thing, Gabriel just had to crack a joke about it. Come on, he was a prankster, give a guy some leeway.
After all, he just found out that he was never really hidden and that his Dad was in fact around and hadn't deserted them, but was rather playing around with them all like they were his puppets. Don't get him wrong, there was a body part he liked to enlarge from time to time, but he was no Pinocio. And he did like to prank people and scare them and stuff, but he didn't like killing them or causing undeserved emotional pain. Physical yes, but not emotional. So it was a little strange that he was going to kill Dean over and over at Broward County's Mystery Spot, before Sam suddenly popped in, gracefully, vibrating with the kind of power Gabriel only knew came from one source.
So you can't really blame him for thinking Sam was his Daddy.
Especially after seeing that pissed off look the younger hunter sported back in Wellington. Gabe was just playing around, not really hurting anyone, not even the guy The Incredible Hulk supposedly killed, and then there came a guy, the divine light seeping out of his pores and started chasing him and yelling after him. He was terrified!
There are very few things in this world that could end an archangel and God was certainly one of them.
But Dean helped him through, God bless his closeted tiny heart, and showed him everything. The past, the present, the future, or the one he remembered anyway. The one they were trying to fix. Or rewrite. Whatever.
"Mmmm, oh, sweet Jesus on a tortilla! These are soooo good. How do you make them so fluffy?!" Gabriel moaned and talked around his bite of the pancakes, wondering why Sam made them in the first place when Gabriel could have just snapped them in existence. In fact, at this point, Sam could have probably done the same too.
Sam ignored him, taking a bite of his own and staring down at his plate. The kid figured Dean had shown Gabriel everything, and, though somewhat justified, he was still sorry about his actions.
"Come on, lighten up. Otherwise, you'll make the syrup sour up." Gabriel said, and Sam lifted his gaze, silently staring into him for a few minutes.
"Gabe, I…"
"Swear to Dad, if you say you're sorry one more time, I'm gonna strip your pants and force you over my legs and spank you silly." Ahhh, there it was. The famous bitchface. But Gabriel was detecting a bit of amusement there, so he grinned and Sam finally broke, huffing a smile. Yup, he still got it.
"I was wondering, though. I mean, I saw how it went down, Dean showed me how you picked up the gun and shot dear old Dad. That was awesome. I still don't get how Dean was strong enough to push me out of the memory and not let me see who Chuck wanted you to kill…"
"Gabe, that's…"
"No, I get it. Still some trust issues, that's expected. But not what I was wondering about. I am curious - how did it feel?"
"How did what feel?"
"Getting shot by that bullet? Taking on some of Dad's divinity?" Gabriel asked and Sam blinked at him a few times, confused, then contemplative before he answered.
"Felt like a regular gun-shot."
"Huh." It was Gabriel's turn to think it over. "So you haven't felt different? No lightning coming out of your hands, a sudden locust infection, Earthquake?" Sam shook his head. "Huh."
"Can I take a look?" He asked, turning completely serious so that Dam would know he wasn't just jacking around.
"I don't…"
"I promise I won't go poking around to see who was meant to be shot. I just want to see how you handled the bullet and the things that happened with it, okay? Dean showed me, but sometimes, it is a matter of perspective, something he didn't focus on, or didn't see, but captured your attention. That's what I need to see, okay?" Finally, Sam gave a nod and Gabriel took a deep breath, stood up and walked behind Sam. He settled both his palms over Sam's ears and closed his eyes, letting the grace flow through.
He saw Sam shooting Chuck and flinching as the same bullet hit him, obviously connecting them. He saw Hell opening up, the boys running for their lives. A demon named Belphegor. A hunter named Arthur. A witch named Rowena. All three seemed somehow important, and Gabriel didn't know why, but they seemed to have a connection to the archangel as well. Gabriel shoved those thoughts aside and focused on Sam and the bullet.
"Well, there's your answer right there." Gabriel said, manifesting himself and Sam in one of Sam's memories. Much to Sam's disdain, it just had to be fast forward to the part where he was almost killed by a ghost of a killer clown. Gabriel was amused by his discomfort and simply let the scene evolve.
His little brother Castiel rushed in, shot the ghost with rock salt and saved the day, then healed Sam's gash. But Sam flinched and Castiel persuaded him to let the angel see the wound. Of course, Cassie's first instinct was to try and heal it.
Sam clearly had a flash of a memory from an alternate universe, probably one that God was currently involved in. Sam's consciousness latched on to Castiel's grace when the angel tried to find the source of the problem to try and fix it, but since Sam wasn't the one who was actually shot, it travelled all the way to the person that was - Chuck. That created a bond, an open link that only solidified whenever Chuck tried to intervene, like at the Casino when he gave Sam the watch or when he tried to kill the younger version of the hunter.
But then, like in those old tube TVs, the image cracked, static and snow filling the view and tuned in another channel. One that played an old version of the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was an episode about Crang and Shredder and about Technodrome coming up to the surface, but it only played a few scenes before the sound of Gabriel's laughter brought Sam back to reality. He was practically rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach.
"Oh, that is funny, I can't believe I forgot about that!" Gabriel laughed even harder at Sam's confused face. Whipping away a few stray tears, Gabriel got back up on his chair and conjured a banana-sardine-chocolate pizza and snapped a slice. The horrified look on Sam's face was so worth it. "Did u 'now I came up wiff ninja turlez?" He asked, but with his mouth full, the crumbs just sprayed all over Sam's face. It was hilarious.
"Really?" The hunter asked, though Gabriel had a feeling he would like more to bring out his inner Chuck and scold him for his table manners just like dear old Daddy used to do.
"Yeah. I was the muse that inspired those two nincompoops to make the turtles. They were supposed to be based on the four archangels, it was a joke. But those two idiots messed up the punchline, so no one ever got the joke."
"Messed it up how?" Gabriel paused his eating and looked at Sam as if the hunter had grown antlers all of a sudden.
"Seriously? The coolest turtle is named Michaelangelo! Hello!" Gabriel made a face, showing off some snobbish disgust before ripping up another bite of his pizza, going back to talk with his mouth full. "They were supposed to named after the archangels, not some stupid sculptors. I was supposed to be the cool turtle, the orange - it is soooo my color."
"Red was supposed to be Lucifer, not Ralph. He is second cool but with enough anger issues and a hint of disobedience to be the perfect bad-boy. Plus the twin sais?! Practically scream 'Devil's fork'. Ralph was Donatello, of course, he was always dorky and uptight and Mike was Leo, the leader, the good, obedient son. But Kev and Pete had to go and mess that up and my joke fell through." Gabriel spoke as he finished his pizza, completely trailing off from what they were originally talking about.
"How was he before? Lucifer I mean. Before the fall." Sam suddenly asked, and Gabriel wasn't sure where his mind was at, but he still replied, watching the hunter curiously.
"Pretty much like the red ninja turtle. Playing the tough guy, temperamental and cynical, aggressive sometimes, sullen, sarcastic, and rebellious. A little bit more narcissistic than the turtle. But, um… He was one of us. One of the gang." Gabriel said with a shrug. "He's my brother." He added, feeling a bit strange. He hadn't witnessed what his brother had done, only saw it second-hand through Sam's and Dean's eyes, and yes, Lucifer was just that, only… He wasn't so evil back then.
"Do you… Do you think there is a chance that…" Sam stared, but trailed off, and Gabriel knew what the hunter wanted to ask. He wanted to know if maybe Lucifer wasn't really the devil of their nightmares, but just another character their father twisted into something he was not for the benefit of the story. "No, never mind." The hunter added quickly and Gabriel knew what that was too. Dangerous thoughts. That's what they were.
A moment of silence befell upon them, but before it became too uncomfortable, Gabriel decided to change the subject. "So… Who's the kid?"
"The kid?" Sam seemed confused by the sudden question, though he realized who Gabriel was talking about before the archangel even explained.
"The kid in your memories. Dean's too. The one you've been trying to hide from me?" What?! They have been pretty secretive about the kid. When he first caught a glimpse of him in Dean's memories, he could feel Dean's fear about how powerful the kid was, but that didn't give him an answer of what he was. Gabriel had a few ideas but all of them were blown away when Gabriel tapped into Sam's memory of the time he shot Chuck. He shot Chuck because God killed the kid.
Dad never got his hands dirty.
That raised a few alarms, the kid must have been something really big. The only thing Gabriel could think of would be a archnepilim, but who would be stupid enough to… Oh Christ, it wasn't him, was it?! While Gabriel was suddenly hit by anxiety of fathering a child, Sam let out a deep sigh.
"Jack. His name is… was Jack. And we haven't been trying to hide him, it's just… It's hard. It's hard to think about…" Sam said, and he sounded so sad. He paused for a moment and sighed again, then looked up at Gabriel with those damn puppy eyes, the whole thing dragging down Gabriel's mood.
So, in a very non-Gabrielistic kind of way, he reached and set a comforting hand on the hunter's shoulder. "Tell me about him." Ok, so yeah, maybe, next to providing comfort he wanted to know if he sired a nephilim, so sue him.
"He's Lucifer's." Oh, phew. "But he was nothing like him. He was just this sweet kid, innocent, confused. A kid. He had all this power, but he quickly picked up what's right and what's wrong."
"Souls would do that to ya." Gabriel commented and Sam huffed a smile, nodding.
"When Jack was born, Lucifer, he killed Cas. And Jack… Jack brought him back."
"Whoaaa… Shit, I don't think even Dad can do that."
"Yeah. Jack helped us save a lot of people. Including our mom."
"Wait, I thought she was…"
"Amara brought her back."
"Amara?! When did that happen?! How…" Gabriel flailed his hand around, feeling a certain amount of panic rising up, but luckily, Sam interrupted.
"Don't worry, didn't happen yet."
"Phew… Thank Odin."
"Odin?"
"Sorry, habit. So, you were saying…"
"Yeah, Jack… He um… He was a good kid. Some stuff went down and he… He lost his soul. Burned it. And… He accidentally killed mom." Gabriel hissed as if the information burned him.
"Yikes. That had to hurt."
"That day, at the cemetery… Dean was ready to kill him. He really was. But we figured that the whole thing was Chuck, trying to manipulate us, for the benefits of a little drama in his story. He set up the events that lead to Jack losing his soul and then to killing mom and… You know what he said?" Sam huffed a laugh and Gabriel just raised a curious brow.
"He said he would bring her back. If we kill him. That he would bring her back." There was so much anger and disgust in Sam's voice, but it all somehow vibrated to amplify his connection to Chuck. Gabriel could feel waves of energy oozing out of him.
"I think…" Sam kept talking. "I think he saw Jack as a threat. I think that… If anyone could have been strong enough to kill Chuck, or to contain him or whatever - it would be Jack."
"You really miss him, don't you?" Gabriel asked, and got hit with those wide puppy eyes again. Those should really come with a warning label. "Okay, okay… So why don't we just go and snag him?"
"What? How?" Sam frowned, confused.
"Well, the same way you beamed Dean and Cas here. Just… Wish it be." Even as he said the words, Gabriel knew that would never happen. Dean and Cas were brought here probably by a mix of Sam's wishes and their origin story being altered; they were too important to disappear with the rest of the story, while Jack… Well. He was already dead. And bringing him back, even if they were in their time, would be extremely difficult (think 30 inch jawbreaker). "Yeah, that's not gonna work, I know."
"Maybe there is another way." Sam offered,a hopeful look in his eyes. And suddenly, Gabriel had an idea. Just like that. Huh.
Maybe it was Sam's connection to Chuck, his ability to rewrite their story. And if that was so, then the idea that popped into Gabriel's head just might work.
"There is. But we're gonna need Lucufer for that."
"No. No. I will not let him loose on the world and I won't let him do that to Kelly again." Sam protested.
"Kelly, huh? Was she good looking?"
"Gabriel!"
"Yeah, yeah, alright. But I didn't we do a repeat. I was just thinking that if there was a way to extract Jackie boy from wherever the hell he is now, Lucifer's grace would certainly boost that spell." As soon as Gabriel mentioned the word spell, he could see someth6click in Sam's eyes, so the angel squinted at the hunter. "Alright, spit it out."
"What?"
"I saw that look in your eyes, you had an idea too. Out with it." Gabriel said and Sam huffed a laugh.
"There might be a… witch we could contact. She might help. For a price."
"Is she good looking?"
"Gabriel!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. She's a witch, they're all good looking." Gabriel smiled at the annoyed face Sam gave him, and then decided to be serious for a moment. "Okay, so call your witch friend."
"Oh, um…" Sam's face did a series of expressions Gabriel could only identify as uncertainty. "That's , um…"
"You don't know where she is. I bet her meeting you will be ahead of schedule?"
"Way ahead. She might not… react well to us."
"Oh, jeez, a witch getting scared of a hunter, I didn't see that coming." Sam's bitchface was hilarious. Gabriel wondered if he could make him press his lips in an even thinner line. Like make them almost disappear. "Look. Just summon her. No matter how powerful she is, she can't do jack against an archangel and a hand of God."
"Hand of God?"
"Well, what else would you like me to call you? God boy? Boy of wonders? Oh, I know. Jesus! I can call you Jesus. You almost got the hair for it." Yes! Success! The lips had disappeared and the brows were so pulled together, they seemed as one. The bitchface is at a hundred percent. "My point still stands, she can't hurt us."
"That does mean she can't do something else to us." Sam pointed out, and now Gabriel got curious. He had to meet this witch. She seemed like a feisty one and if she was a blond, Gabriel would pounce on that so fast… Oh, if she was a…
"And I can't just summon her." Sam interrupted Gabriel's daydream and the archangel rolled his eyes at the hunter.
"Sure you can. You got the power of God coursing through your veins, you can do anything." Gabriel wanted to point out that Sam might not even need his witch friend at all, but he would be damned to miss an opportunity to meet a lady with such… Interesting attributes. Witches always were the kinkiest ones.
"I can't… I don't know how." Sam mumbled ducking his head. He looked so adorable, he must have some canine blood mixed in, his inner puppy is shining so bright.
"It's easy. Alright. Close your eyes and just think about her. Imagine her standing right in front of us and… make it happen. Snap your fingers if that helps." Gabriel said and Sam did as he was told, focusing so hard the archangel was pretty sure he caught a glimpse of his constipated face, but when those fingers snapped, nothing happened. Well, except a few purple sparks that exploded in the air. Probably deadly for any regular Joe. Thank Beebo they were just a bit higher on the food chain.
"Oh, I like it when they're playing hard to get." Gabriel said with a wicked smile. "Alright. So we need to up our game. Do I meet her? In the future, I mean?" When Sam gave him an affirmative nod, Gabriel quickly explained that he would bring her there, but that he needed to tap Sam's memories and that it would help if Sam could focus on one where Gabriel and the witch interacted. Taking a deep breath, Gabriel got to work, accessing Sam's memory and concentrated on it. He managed to catch a glimpse of himself covered in hickeys and lipstick, but then all his breath was taken away by the sight of a gorgeous redhead woman. Her bright red lips parted in a gasp as those hazel eyes widened, their texture making them shimmer to green, almost like the skin of a snake.
"Well, hello there." She spoke, and sweet Jesus on a cracker, she has an accent. A Scottish accent. She took a few steps forward, her stunning royal blue dress accentuating her eyes, her milky face, those beautiful red lips. Gabriel zoned out.
He could hear Sam talking, mentioning some family named the Laughlins, a Black Grimoire, Lucifer, even someone named Fergus. He could hear him talking about a book of the damned, the cage, about Jack, and some kid named Oliver and he talked and talked and all Gabriel could do was just stare. He stared at the witch's hair, tracing how it shimmered in the light whenever the witch moved. He watched her eyes flicker towards him, watching him, judging him. He watched her lips, how they would part and move with every word spoken; the one time she bit down on her lower lip, Gabriel thought his brain melted.
"And what about you, handsome?" Oh, that voice, sweet music to his ears.
"Mm…me?"
"Ay, you. You're a powerful one, I can see that. Samuel here is simply channeling power, but you… You, my darling, are all energy." She said, practically purring in his ear. When did she get so close? "Tell me, what are you?"
"I… I… I am yours."
"Oh!" The witch was definitely surprised by the answer, but her wide smile showed how pleased she was. Something softened in her eyes, and her lips curled in a lovely smile. "You are just the sweetest. How do they say… Heaven must be missing an angel."
"What?! How did you know?"
"Wait, really? You're an angel?"
"Name's Gabriel. And I am at your service, madam." Yes, he bowed. He could be classy. Gabriel rose up with a bouquet of red roses in his hand, and the witch gasped again, delighted by the act.
"Alright, enough you two. Gabriel, we need to find Dean and Cas and get everything ready. Rowena agreed to help with the spellwork…"
"... once you let me unlock my powers…" Rowena interjected, making Sam roll his eyes, but nodded and then continued.
"... yes, and we need to talk to Lucifer and get his grace, so that we could save Jack. And then stop Chuck. For good." Sam finished, and Gabriel nodded, with a grin.
"Alright. We got April, let's go get Casey Jones so that we could get our missing ninja turtle."
"What?" Sam asked with a frown, and yeah, he was right. "Never mind. Bad analogy."