Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sam whistled between his teeth. "Damn."

Castiel was wide-eyed as he took in the group gathered in the parking lot of what had been a Walmart in Dearborn, Michigan. The building was grey with dust from one of the demon battles that had waged in the area and looked empty apart from the two-dozen angels that were standing guard outside. Sam was sure it was still full of things humans would need inside, though. They wouldn't be guarding it otherwise.

That was how the angels worked in this world, after all. They found places humans needed and laid traps there. There was no real need to do it: if they wanted people dead, they could find them easily. It was just their way of torturing the humans. People would come here, driven to risk their lives when they were desperate, and the angels would kill them for it. It was all a game.

Sam hated it.

It was becoming harder to catch the angels as their numbers dwindled. They knew what was happening, and some were smart enough to hide. Gabriel estimated there were only around one hundred angels left to be reprogrammed now, so discovering nearly a quarter of that total together in one place was a big win. Gabriel, Sam and Castiel's sense of urgency had grown as they grew closer to their goal of paradise. They all wanted it over now that they were so close.

"This is a lot of angels at once," Castiel said warily.

"I can handle it," Sam assured him.

"It would be a lot of strain," Castiel said pointedly. "Stripping that many in quick succession would be a huge influx of memories at once."

"I can handle it," Sam repeated confidently.

He was much better at dealing with the memories now. He could allow almost all of them to pass through him and out again, and the ones that remained were banished to the back of his mind along with Lucifer's.

Sam was determined to do better at fighting, too. Gabriel had been pretty sarcastic with Sam following their encounter with Claire, saying that taking the maximum amount of injury to his person – just because he could – wasn't really an appropriate defensive strategy. After he'd healed him, Gabriel made Sam spar with him, archangel-style, to ram home the point that Sam needed to stop fighting as though he were still human. Sam wasn't sure if he would ever manage it, but he thought he could try.

Sam flexed his wings and drew them in at his back again. He wanted to start.

Castiel clutched his sleeve and said, "Sam, listen!"

Sam focused and heard what he'd missed while distracted talking to Castiel. There was the rumble of abused engines approaching. It had to be humans,

Sam cursed as the other angels began to laugh and slipped back into the shadows around the store. They clearly didn't want to be seen until they were ready. They preferred it when they could catch the humans off guard.

"We've got to stop them," Sam said urgently. "Stay back."

"I can help," Castiel said.

"No, Cas! If they're rebels, they're going to be armed. They can't kill me, but it would only take one well-placed angel bullet to kill you. Stay back!"

Castiel looked concerned, but he nodded and stepped back as Sam spread his vast wings and flew to the end of the road where the engines were coming. It was four battered jeeps that were clearly the remains of the military's attempts to fight the war. Sam knew they had to be rebels as they were the only ones that had access to vehicles and the know-how to get fuel for them.

They skidded to a halt. The doors flew open, and men and women poured out, all armed with guns that they aimed at Sam.

"Stop!" he shouted. "I'm not what you think!"

"Fire!" a hard-faced woman at the head of the group shouted, and gunfire exploded around him.

He held up a hand and the bullets slowed until they simply bounced off him when they hit. Gabriel could make angel bullets disappear – he said he sent them to the nearest black hole in space – but Sam was happier removing their energy rather than removing the bullets themselves. "I am Sam," he growled. "I am an archangel. Have you heard of me?"

"Cease firing!" The woman called, then narrowed her eyes. "The other one?"

"Yes," Sam said emphatically. "The one that's helping humans. And there are over twenty angels a mile away guarding the store that I'm guessing you are heading for. So you need to get back in your cars now and away from here before they decide to investigate."

"Too late," Castiel said, appearing beside him with a soft flutter.

A split second later, there was a rush of beating wings, and the angels that had been guarding the store appeared around them.

They surrounded Sam, Castiel, and the people in a wide circle, and Sam saw the malicious gleam in their eyes. They all had their blades drawn, but Sam didn't expect them to use them. Angels in this world preferred slow, hands-on kills.

"Get into your trucks," Castiel ordered at the same moment Sam straightened his back and spread his wings in a show of force.

He saw the shock on the angels' faces, and their distraction gave the people a chance to get into their vehicles. Three of the engines gunned to life, and the wheels span as they turned around, but the fourth chugged and stalled.

The angels smiled widely and moved closer to the trucks. Sam flung out his arms and threw them all backwards, hard enough that they skidded across the ground after landing on their backs.

"Allar Iliad," he bellowed before they could recover, focusing on shielding Castiel from the command even as he aimed at the large group.

He knew he wasn't going to be able to stop these angels and wipe them. He was going to have to fight, and that would put Castiel at risk.

"Cas, go!" he commanded. "Get to The Roadhouse. I'll come when I'm done."

"I am not leaving you alone here," Castiel said, anger in his voice.

Sam would have argued, but the angels were getting to their feet.

"Drive," he shouted, and the three running trucks roared away, their engines protesting. The fourth, the one that stalled, squealed as they tried to start the engine.

He flung out his arms again but this time the angels only skidded back a few feet. Sam ran forward and yanked open the driver's door of the truck and shouted, "Get out! Now!"

They looked worried, but they obeyed, each clutching their gun. They looked ready to fight alongside him, but Sam wanted them away from there. If they started firing, the angels might start snapping their fingers, and then there would be nothing he could do for them – their bodies would be so destroyed that he couldn't bring them back.

"Get them all out of here, Cas," he ordered. "Take them to Ellen."

Castiel looked torn, but he nodded, and with a rush of wings, he and the remaining three rebels disappeared. Sam was alone with over twenty angry angels.

His blade slipped into his hands, and he prepared himself to fight. He hoped he could stop this with only a handful of deaths. He wanted to save as many angels as he could to protect the world when Gabriel's paradise was finally created. They would be needed to shield the humans from the Tempter Demons and other monsters left behind. It would be a long time before Sam and Gabriel could wipe the other threats out, if they ever could. The problem with creatures like vampires and werewolves was they could infect others, and it escalated into chaos quickly if they weren't stopped.

Even when they'd created paradise, they were going to have a mission on their hands to stay on top of those kinds of monsters.

He could see the angels battling to spread their wings in order to flee, but his spell had done the job; they were trapped. They all realized it at the same moment, and they seemed to decide en mass that outright fighting was their best bet. They had to know they couldn't kill him, but perhaps they thought they would be able to overpower him so they could make their escape.

Had he not been a full archangel again, if he was still the vulnerable creature Chuck had left him immediately after he'd been switched with Lucifer, he would have been helpless. But he was stronger now. What was coming was going to hurt, but he could handle it.

The first reached him, a woman, and he struck out with his blade, catching her in the side and making her reel back and clutch at the wound.

Uh… Sam… what are you doing? Gabriel asked.

"Fighting," Sam grunted as he swung at two males that were closing in on him. He caught one across the chest, but the second twisted away so only his arm was slashed.

Why don't you try killing? Gabriel asked.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?"

I think you're still forgetting you're an archangel. Smite them, Sam!

Sam realized his mistake a moment too late. One of the women had circled him and drove her blade into his back. He arched away, anger rising in him, and then flung out his arms and allowed the power of his grace to pour through him. His eyes squeezed shut automatically against the blazingly bright light, but he heard the screams of pain and a rushing sound like a fire.

When the screams died away, he opened his eyes and saw he was now standing in a shallow crater in the middle of a blast zone, the bodies of angels on the ground: charred corpses with ash wings spread beneath them.

He sucked in a breath. He had killed them all. Every one of them was dead.

He was stunned. He'd done a lot of things with his grace since becoming an angel, he'd seen amazing things, but he'd never truly experienced how much raw power he possessed and just how much damage could be done with it.

You do realize they were the murderous variety of angels, right?

"I know," Sam said, his eyes falling closed.

"Then what's with the face?" Gabriel asked.

Sam's eyes flew open, and he saw the small archangel walking towards him. He was smiling, but his eyes were troubled.

"I killed them all," Sam said. "And I didn't even realize I was doing it. I was angry."

Gabriel sighed. "Yeah, I know. But you did the right thing, Sam. They weren't going to kill you, obviously, they can't, but they were going to turn you into an archangel pincushion. Even someone with your raw power would take time to recover from that. They weren't just bad guys, we're at war and they were the enemy. You did the right thing."

"I guess."

Gabriel punched his shoulder. "Sam, you saved lives today. Cas told me what happened. All those people, rebels on our side, would have been killed. And you've saved even more human lives in the future by stopping them. It's not easy what we're doing, but that's because this isn't hunting monsters, it's war. Do you think my hands are clean after all the time I've been here? I've not been able to wipe them all. A lot of angels have died. But more have lived. There are enough to protect the world now, and there are humans that are alive and safe because of it."

Sam nodded. "I know. I guess it's just the first time that I've felt truly out of control like that. I've killed plenty before, but nothing like that."

"Yeah, I prefer to use…" Gabriel snapped his fingers, "but, y'know, you do you." At Sam's expression, Gabriel moved closer, his wings doing that comforting thing where they brushed against Sam's. "You've got two options here, Sam. One, you let yourself do the 'Sam Winchester, human hunter', thing; you stew over what happened for a while and eventually add it to the list of things that haunt your dreams—if you still dreamed, that is. Or two, you accept what happened was the result of you being 'Sam the archangel warrior', accept that it was the right thing, and let it go. I know which I'd do…"

Sam closed his eyes. It really was a two-option choice. To do one would be to cling to who he had been before, the human. To do the other was to embrace what he was now, an archangel with incredible power and responsibility. He'd not killed innocents, he'd been protecting innocents. He'd not done it maliciously.

He thought, in fact, it was the purest divine thing he'd done so far. And maybe that was right. He was a celestial being now, after all. Wasn't it about time he embraced that?

He wasn't losing anything or anyone if he did. He'd said goodbye to his human life when he'd left his family behind. Castiel and Gabriel were now his family, and they were both angels.

"Now you're getting it," Gabriel said cheerfully.

"Can you get out of my head, please," Sam said.

"I can, I would even, but I think I need to be in your head right now. Besides, if you really wanted me out, you'd block me. You want me in there."

"Can I get in your head?" Sam asked.

"You can, absolutely, but I don't recommend it. It's a freakshow in here. And it's not like I'm in your head all the time. I could tell you were working through something just then, and I wanted to know which side you were coming down on. If you can keep yourself calm and on track, I'll stay out." He held out a hand. "Deal?"

Sam huffed a laugh. "Deal."

They shook hands, and Gabriel patted his shoulder. "Now, I can sense a few other angels in the area, probably still hanging around the store. Want some help taking them out?"

"No, I've got it," Sam said. "I'll give Cas a call."

"You might want to wait on that. Jo Harvelle's back at The Roadhouse with a big group, and she's filling Cas in on her progress. I think he's kinda enjoying himself with her. They're bonding."

Sam smiled. He liked the idea of spending some time with Jo, too, even if it wasn't his Jo, but he would let Castiel make friends before joining them. He would deal with the remaining angels first.

"Thanks, Gabriel," he said.

Gabriel patted his shoulder again and took flight, his vast wings whipping against Sam's, where they were still spread at his back. Sam waited a moment and then took flight, too, following the sense of the angels back to the store, inside to where he heard murmuring voices. He concealed himself and walked slowly towards them, keeping his footsteps soft.

He turned an aisle into what had once been outdoor equipment but now held a few tattered patio umbrellas and a selection of children's garden chairs.

There were three angels in front of him, two males whose faces he could see and a blonde woman facing away. They were wearing the combat fatigues that had been the uniform of Michael's army, and they held themselves stiffly.

"Allar Iliad," Sam whispered.

His voice was soft and went unheard, but the angels' wings contracted at their backs, and they looked around, blades dropping into their hands.

The woman turned to Sam, and her lips moved with words that he didn't hear through the buzzing in his mind.

He knew her. He'd loved her. She had meant everything to him once...

It was Jess.

So… Sam threw some real Archangel Power around in this one, and 'Jess' is there. What did you think?

Until next time…

Jadey xxx