Thank you MaggieMay17 for being the most wonderful beta, and VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for being the best pre-readers ever. I can post this chapter content because of all the work those ladies put into it.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sam and Gabriel stood outside the wire-topped fence in the desert, looking in at what had been a military base in Phoenix but was now just another war-ravaged zone of the Western District.

Though they were both concealed from the sight of the other two angels that milled around outside the installation, they were visible to each other by choice. Sam's wings were curled at his back. Gabriel's pale gold wings were extended in the air, occasionally brushing against Sam's, in a way that felt both strange and comforting at the same time. The closest comparison he could come to it was how Dean would pat his shoulder or nudge his elbow: not quite a hug but the Winchester version of one. When Gabriel's wings touched him, it was like being embraced. Sam's own wings wanted to stretch, too, to return the touch, but Sam wasn't sure what the etiquette was for archangels.

"You ready to do this?" Gabriel asked.

Sam straightened his back. "More than ready."

"And you've got the Enochian to lock them down?"

"Yeah, I remember. And it's definitely not going to lock you down, too?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I already told you it wouldn't. Quit worrying. You've got to direct it where you want it. Besides, you might be the more powerful brother now, but you still can't overpower me without a big fight, which we won't be having."

"Agreed. Let's go."

Sam flew the short distance over the fence and then spread his wings in a show of force and raised his voice to a shout, "Allar Ioiad," as he made himself visible to the two angels.

There was a moment of comical shock as their wings shrank at their backs, the angels unable to spread them and fly thanks to the Enochian spell, then they looked to see Sam and Gabriel approaching them. "Gabriel," the blond angel said, making the word a curse.

Gabriel flickered his fingers in a wave, "Hey, guys."

Their eyes moved to Sam, and their mouths dropped open. "Lucifer! How?"

"Favour from Dad," Gabriel said. "After Mickey took the night train out of here, he saw that I needed backup to deal with you crazy kids, so he sent me a buddy from another world. And he's not really Luci. This is Sam."

"You're an archangel," the second angel, one with red hair, shorn close to his head, said. "How is that possible?"

"That'd be more of Dad's high jinks," Gabriel said.

"Why would He do this?" the blond asked.

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for questions," Gabriel said. "There's something I need to do."

He approached the blond and said, "Just like with Nick, Sam. You've got to delve inside and strip the bad. It's a lot since Marius and Jacobiah here were never exactly Heaven's finest."

Sam grabbed the red-head by the shoulders and spun him, then moved his hands to his head, gripping him tight. The angel looked scared but defiant, and Sam felt only a little unease as he closed his eyes and entered the angel's mind.

He felt the heat in his hands as his grace flowed, and then the memories opened themselves to him. He was momentarily overwhelmed, and then he got a hold of himself and started to strip them away. He could feel his mind wanting to absorb them, as Gabriel had warned him it would, but he did as he'd been instructed and let them flow through him and out again, stripping them from the angel and banishing as many of them from himself as he could.

The memories he was taking flashed across his eyes like a speeding film, and he searched back for the moment Gabriel had said he would need to find. When he saw the burst of light, he stopped and focused. He heard the voice intoning what he'd been advised to listen for, and he halted and listened, his mind flipping the Enochian words into English, "You, celestial being, have been created to be an angel of the Lord, to carry out His will, as directed by Heaven, even unto death."

"Got it," he said, opening his eyes and examining the blank look on the angel's face.

"Let me check," Gabriel said, releasing the angel that he'd been working on who looked equally blank. Gabriel touched the red-haired angel's forehead and concentrated a moment, and then nodded. "Nice work, Sam. You got it all. This one here is right at factory settings. He'll have something of a learning curve, but it's better for the humans if they're the strong ones at first, mentally at least."

"They'll have to learn it all the way I did?" he asked, remembering something Billie had said what felt like a lifetime ago about angels having all learned their power but having done it so long ago, they'd forgotten.

"Not exactly the same. As I said, they start out with some basic skills rather than starting out with nothing, like you did, but they do have a lot to learn. We'll drop them off with Ellen at the border so they can pick up the rest of angelic life from the educated ones there. You want to do the honors?"

Sam pulled the angels closer and touched their foreheads with the tips of his fingers, then spoke in a tone that Gabriel had advised him to make gentle to ease them into their reset lives, even though they'd both agreed these angels didn't deserve gentleness.

"Zoh-bah-leh-ta. Sah-teh-voch-leh."

Both angels nodded, and Sam stepped back.

"Grab an angel," Gabriel said, gripping the arm of the blond and spreading his wings for flight.

Sam clutched the arm of the red-head, and they took flight back to Ellen's place.

She was outside this world's version of The Roadhouse, standing with two men and a woman who were washing clothes in a wooden tub. They all looked around as Sam and Gabriel arrived, and Gabriel said, "Newish recruits, Ellen."

She nodded and said, "I'll get them to the border with the others. You heading back out?"

"Unless you need us," Gabriel said. "We can hang…."

His voice faded from Sam's mind as he heard another replace it. "Sam, where are you? I can't sense you. Please, I am at the rift. Find me."

Sam withdrew from his mind and cursed.

"What?" Ellen asked warily. "What kind of archangel crap just dropped in our laps?"

"Cas," Sam whispered.

Gabriel huffed a laugh as Ellen asked, "What's a Cas?"

"He's a friend," Gabriel said. "Sam's bestie from the other world. He was supposed to be staying back as a guard dog for the rest of Sam's family and surplus others, but he apparently had other ideas." He grinned. "Good for him."

Sam's mind reeled. Castiel wasn't supposed to be here. Had something happened that had made him find the rift and come through? Was someone hurt? Why else would he have come here when he knew how much they needed him in their own world?

Sam took flight to the point of the rift and saw Castiel pacing back and forth in front of it. When Sam came to a stop and curled his wings in at his back, he said Castiel's name. Castiel spun around and then launched himself at Sam. For a moment, Sam expected an attack, and he stiffened instinctively, his mind not connecting the differences in the strength between the pair of them now, and then Castiel's arms wrapped around his shoulders in a hug, and Sam relaxed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Are they okay?"

Castiel released him, and a flicker of guilt crossed his face before a smile broke out again. "They're fine, but I had to come."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"He missed you," Gabriel said, appearing beside them. "Duh."

Castiel rushed at Gabriel and embraced him, too. Gabriel looked shocked and then pleased as he returned the embrace. "Hey, Cas. Good to see you, too."

"How did you survive?" Castiel asked.

"Please, you think I'd let Mickey kill me?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I did what I had to do to give you guys the chance to get away, like the hero I am, but I knew I couldn't kill Michael, so I came up with an alternative plan. I was too weak to pass through the rift afterwards, so I hung around on the down low. When Mickey and Luci took off after you, I got to work recreating America back here."

"Cas!" Sam said intensely. "Why are you here?"

Castiel ducked his head, looking ashamed, and then a look of steely determination took its place, and he looked into Sam's eyes. "You asked too much, Sam. After what Dean did to you, what Nick did, I couldn't stay with them, knowing what I know. You didn't see them afterwards. They were so… self-righteous. They blamed me for you leaving, as if they had no part in forcing you to sacrifice yourself for Nick, as if it was something you needed to do."

"They need you, though," Sam said.

"They really don't," Gabriel said, the hint of a laugh in his voice. "You and Dean lived through three years of intense pre-apocalypse before Cassie here showed up to help, and he wasn't the most present of allies after that. They'll be fine."

"They will be fine, Sam," Castiel said. "I know what you wanted from me, but I couldn't do it. They don't need or deserve my protection. They have Jack, who is growing stronger every day and will soon be able to protect them better than I ever could. There are no great threats to them now. This world needs me more than your family. And I couldn't be the only one there who knew the truth. I need to be here, with you."

Sam's heart felt heavy. His eyes found the rift, and he leaned forward slightly: as if his feet wanted to take him through it but his heart was battling against it.

"Nope, Sam," Gabriel said, grabbing his arm and tugging him further away from the rift. "You're not going back. This is the world that needs you. Your family will be fine."

Castiel looked stricken as he understood Sam's actions. "No, Sam! Don't do it. You came here for a reason, a good one. Don't give that up. Here you can have a new family."

Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest. "And everything you were escaping is waiting for you through that rift. You don't need that pain any more than they need you."

Sam felt torn. He was being selfish, he knew, but he didn't want to go back. Castiel and Gabriel were right, Dean and Mary didn't need protection, the threats they couldn't face alone were gone. They had faced far worse than the monsters that remained now, and they could again. It hadn't been Castiel that saved the world by himself all those times it had been ending. It had been Dean and Sam with him, and Bobby too. Sam's place had been replaced by Nick, Dean had proven that when he had chosen Nick over Sam. And they had Jack.

"Okay," he said. "I get it. I'm not going back, and you're not going either. We'll all stay here and do what needs to be done."

Castiel looked relieved, and Gabriel clapped his hands together. "Awesome. Team Free Will – Angel Style in action."

Sam huffed a laugh. "Sure, that's the same thing."

"It's not," Gabriel admitted. "And no offense to your family, but this is even better. We're way more powerful than you guys ever were, and we're doing what you do best—saving the world. It's time to get to it. How's your head?"

"It's fine," Sam said automatically.

Castiel's brow furrowed. "Are you struggling with what you took from Nick? How bad is it?"

Sam did still feel Lucifer's weight on his mind, but it was manageable. And what he took from the angel was, too. He had been able to push most of it away, and what had remained wasn't so bad. He'd been through worse in his life. And this was for a good cause, perhaps the best cause he'd ever fought for. He'd fought for Dean by saving Nick, but this time he was fighting for a whole world.

"Sam?" Castiel prompted.

"It's not just Nick. Me and Gabriel are stripping the angels back to factory settings by removing their memories," he said. "We take them right down to creation, so they lose Michael's influence." He glanced at Gabriel. "There's something else, too, but Gabriel's not sharing yet."

"He's really not," Gabriel said. "When it's time, I'll fill you both in, but I don't want you distracted. You've got to be focused on the angelic host first and foremost until they're not a threat anymore." He lifted his wrist as if to check a watch, though his wrist was bare. "We've got to get back to work. Sam, you think you can handle it alone now?"

"Yeah, I've got it," Sam said.

"And you won't be alone," Castiel said. "I will be with you."

"Perfect," Gabriel said. "Check in when you want, I'll be listening, and make sure to drop them off with Ellen when you're done. We can't leave them standing around once they've been wiped. They'll just wander aimlessly, and there are still demons around that will attack them."

"Ellen Harvelle?" Castiel asked. "She's here?"

Sam smiled. "Yeah, Jo too. Obviously not the same as ours, I think this Ellen is impossibly tougher, but she's got the base at this world's version of The Roadhouse."

"Word of warning, Cassie," Gabriel said. "You're not unknown here. Expect some tension from the humans if they see you, and… I don't want to say servitude exactly, but there's going to be some reaction from the angels since you were Michael's psychopathic mind-reader here."

"I remember," Castiel said. "I killed him."

"Which I'm sure felt really therapeutic. Just be careful."

"We will," Sam said. "Let's go, Cas."

"Where are you going to start?" Gabriel asked. "The Southwest coast gets the best weather these days."

Sam considered. There was a whole world to choose from, and the weather didn't matter when they were hunting rogue angels and stripping them of years of memories of hunting humans and serving an evil archangel. Still, California was the place his life had once started over, so it was as good a place as any to do it again.

"We'll be in California," he said.

Gabriel smiled and nodded. "Back to your roots. Smart. Okay then, kids, let's get it done." He flew away, leaving Sam alone with Castiel by the rift.

"Cas."

Castiel raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Sam."

"How did you find the rift to come through in the first place?"

Castiel smiled. "I went to our roots, too. I knew you would want a place no one could follow, and there was one place that made the most sense."

Sam smiled slightly at the evidence of how well Castiel knew him, even more after their time together as angels. He thought he had been smart opening the rift on Gangkhar Puensum, but his best friend had known where to go to come to him.

He was pleased he had. As much as Sam wanted his family to have the best backup now he was gone, he couldn't deny that it felt good to have Castiel with him instead.

As much as Gabriel felt like a brother, now they were both archangels, Sam felt he had his true family with him now. Castiel had been family for years before Sam had become an archangel. Now he seemed even more so, a living link between Sam's old life and his new one. It was comforting, somehow, that they would be together again, fighting to reverse an Apocalypse rather than prevent one. After everything he'd lost, that mattered more than anything.

He wasn't alone.

So… Team Free Will – Angel Style are a go. I didn't originally plan for Castiel to follow Sam yet, but he was so angry with Dean it seemed the natural choice. What do you think?

Until next time…

Jadey xxx