He had come back to himself, as the turn of phrase went, not long ago, unsurprised to see Sam with him in what appeared to be the beautiful room. It was still done from where they had held Dean captive on that terrible day, made to be splendor to a human. He thought that he understood now that the righteous man would never be comfortable in such a place.

Sam was calm, waiting patiently although he had taken a look around for escape routes to find that none still existed. Castiel shared his state, knowing without a doubt that help would arrive for them, that Dean alone wouldn't just leave Sam in the hands of their unpredictable brothers. His eyes fell to the painting of Michael slaying evil that hung up on the wall and he smiled a bit, wondering what his friend would say of it now.

A part of him still mourned that he was not what he once was and had not been able to protect Sam as he should have been. Though he had a strange sense of pride that Zachariah personally sent four of his brothers to take him down, as though he was still just as dangerous as he had been.

"Where exactly is this place anyway?" Sam asked picking up one of the burgers from the platter on the table and making a face. It was perfect in this space, neither aging nor even cooling from the proper temperature.

"Van Nuys, California. It is the Beautiful Room, where we kept your brother."

"They thought Dean would go for this?" Sam actually laughed, something surprisingly relaxed even if there was worry in his face. "Wow, they would have done better with a honky-tonk bar, peanuts on the floor, and good, cheap whiskey."

Castiel gave a nod as Zachariah made his presence known, coming to stand by Sam.

"Well, Sam," the angel said leaning against the table as he watched Sam stare defiantly up at him. "Don't suppose you just want to make this easier on us all and tell us where your brother is."

"Fuck you."

He tried to get up when he watched Sam vomit blood violently but felt Zachariah pin him against his chair. "Uh-uh, the only reason you're still alive is an extra chip. A little, ah, flavor, to our dealings with Dean to make him come quieter. Now, Sam," his brother said ripping the boy's head up with Sam's face twisted with pain and rage, "be good."

Castiel admitted he was impressed when the boy just spat a bloody mouthful onto his brother's face. Not that it got him far as he screamed when Zachariah's own anger flared and he twisted his hand, snapping something inside the boy.

"Shouldn't expect manners from maggots like you," Zachariah said, cleaning his face. "You see, you're just making it harder. We already issued a bulletin for your brother through our, well, rather eclectic street scum since he managed to turn off his dreams. If he wants your worthless hide in one piece and not screaming he has to surrender. You and I both know he'll be here, handing himself over because he just can't live without his lesser half."

Sam managed a smile that was half deranged from the pain, his eyes barely able to keep from rolling back into his head. Castiel felt worthless, that he had failed them and he could not do a thing. Sword taken, strapped to a chair. At least he could credit his brother with learning from his last mistake. Just not anything else.

"He will end you," Sam managed to get out, his teeth were stained with blood and Castiel worried that it would get worse. The Winchester's were stubborn but Zachariah just laughed.

Heaven had always been foolish. Even before they had learned the truth he believed Dean would have killed this angel on principle with sheer will power alone if he had the weapon for it.

"That postulant boil on an ape's behind you call a brother. Please. He's a barely functional alcoholic with a suicide streak a mile long. News flash, worm, you were always going to lose."

Sam was barely staying conscious, and Castiel fought against the binds on him, pushing at them with all he was to get to the boy, to at least distract his brother, if Zachariah could even be called that anymore, from his little game. To spare Sam a little because he still had some grace. He was able to endure a bit more than someone made of flesh and blood alone.

"What the –" Zachariah said as the room shook, a long shudder as though the world had sighed under the ferocity of the hit.

"He's coming," Castiel said, raising up his eyes pleased to see some uncertainty now.

"Who?"

"Your demise." He felt a pleasant bloom of satisfaction at his brother's uncertainty sliding straight into fear. "Have you lost your wings, Zachariah? I assure you it will be the least of your worries."

Before his brother could get out another question Michael was there, throwing Zachariah in a clatter of old hamburgers and chairs across the room. His face was carefully composed but his eyes gave away the white, hot fury of galaxies that he knew his oldest brother was, would always be no matter his state.

"Sammy," Michael said and he watched those hands heal that poor child, wipe away the blood as the restraints on him lifted. It was pleasing to see Michael more together than he had been, more in control.

"I'm okay," Sam was saying, grabbing his brother's arms. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah, well kind of wish we didn't have this douche nozzle to get us in the same room. Sorry about that, Sam. They had it all warded, took a bit."

"Michael?"

"This actually works out though," Michael said straightening as he walked towards the cowed figure of Zachariah who was trying to crawl into a corner. "I need intel, and you're available. Funny how that works."

"I don't – I was told we needed to get you a vessel. What happened to you?"

"Nope, see you don't get to ask the questions this time, Jabba," Michael said his mouth twisting into a cruel smile even as Castiel saw the coldness fill those eyes. "Time to squeal like the piggy you are."

With a breath, Michael's wings opened and they were moving to somewhere far better than that accursed room.

~x~

"What the hell are you?"

Dean rolled his head, trying not to just reach in and rip the grace out of the asshole bound in front of him. The need for answers was a far more pressing issue right now. Lucifer had a time bomb on earth somewhere, and not defusing that, even with Morning Star captured, whatever his brother cooked up was going to be hard to stop.

Not to mention whatever weird shit was going down in heaven.

"Does it matter?" he asked.

"Looks like you went and mated with the mud monkeys, Michael." Zachariah smiled, something predatory but Dean could sense the fear in his supposed brother. "Did you get all up with one of the flannel-clad nightmares? Tell me, was it good?"

Dean approved when Gabriel just punched the bastard in the face to shut him up, the chair they had him restrained in rocking back violently into the wall before tipping back forward.

"Keep at it, going to make your death more painful and, gotta say, not going to cry a tear for you," Dean said. "Think you'd wanna make it go a bit easier."

"And why would I want to listen to something that looks like Michael but isn't?"

Dean stretched out his hand, feeling Zachariah's grace and curled his fingers, making the angel scream in his true voice. The warding here held it in, the sounds harmlessly rebounding off the cement as the walls shook a little.

"Still Michael," he said quietly, relishing in the panting angel in front of him. "Want to try again? Who sent you to pick up Sam?"

"Well, thought it was you, but obviously you've been too busy getting it up for the mudfish."

Dean resisted the urge just to hurt him. "Who actually gave you the order?"

"Who do you think? You catch stupid from the humans now?"

"And what does my dear brother Raphael say these days?"

Zachariah just grinned at them and Dean ran a hand through his hair. Gabriel was losing the same amount of patience beside him, closing a fist around the angel's throat.

"Look, you moldering sack of pompous shit," his brother growled. "Neither of us has the patience, and Mike there is going to torch you alive over and over again until you just beg us to kill you."

"We are following the plan, unlike you two," Zach said, eyes big under the pressure of Gabriel's hand. "What was set out for us to do."

"Does Raphi say the orders come from me?"

"Yes or Father."

Gabriel released the angel, who caught an unneeded breath. There was something unhinged in those eyes. Fear and pride all mixed up together into a sort of insanity he had seen before. That self-driven purpose that was so beyond certain that it was right while the rest of the universe was wrong.

There was no way this angel was leaving here alive and a part of him hated that.

"Heaven believes I'm up there?"

"What do you think?" Zach said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "That whole lot would panic if you were missing. Gotta say, explains why Raphael is such an uptight prick though. Leaving him to do your work."

Dean ignored the jab. Heaven would catch wind that the beautiful room had been breached and Raphael would know something big was up. If he had luck, his brother would think Lucifer, but he doubted he'd be that fortunate.

How the hell did Raphael think this would go down if he wasn't there? Was his brother so far gone that he would watch the world burn and turn his back? Was there a deal with Lucifer?

This slimebag, he knew, couldn't tell him that. Maybe he could, however, be useful in some other way.

"Where is Pestilence?"

Zachariah grinned again and Dean closed his hand, trying not to relish the screaming.

"Where is he?"

Again nothing and it was rinse and repeat, memories of a past long forgotten in him of doing this on heaven's fields to brothers who had turned. Listening to them scream as they swore allegiance to Lucifer with their dying breaths, never understanding that Lucifer only cared for himself.

Gabriel was soundless and still beside him, watching. Dean wondered if he was remembering too, and of how he had wept for their dead little brothers. Of how he had told him that they were already lost, that it was a mercy, of how hollow all those words had been that couldn't wash away the blood.

"Don't know," Zach finally got out.

"You aren't really helpful."

Dean was raising his hand again and was surprised when Zach added, "Coward."

"You don't know when to shut it, do you?"

"You abandoned us. Just like your little brothers, well except Raphael. At least he made sure everything didn't go to shit."

Dean just walked over and lifted him, chair and all, off the ground, staring into the madness of an angel.

"Truth hurts," Zach snapped, before spitting in his face.

Dean didn't flinch.

"He'll bring the end times, wash this filth off the planet," the angel continued, deranged and rambling now. Dean could feel the pain in him, the twists of his grace and he wondered what Raphael had done to make them all so compliant. Militant, the lot of them, so desperate for orders and control that they followed blinding off a cliff into madness.

"That's paradise. To be rid of the monkeys that caused all of this."

"They didn't ask for it. Lucifer gave it to them."

"He was right."

Dean let the chair drop, it skittered, almost tipping before righting itself. A glance back told him Gabriel had kept it upright, his brother's eyes hard now.

"Flawed. Gotta say, super ironic you're slumming it with them now. Crawling in the filth but it makes it easier. Wipes them out faster cause boys, you got no aces and that clock is ticking down. Tick tock, tick tock, tick –"

Gabriel silenced him, Dean feeling that old rage unfurling in him. That one of betrayal and hatred as he watched heaven desecrated and now this home. The one he had never asked to be on but was still his all the same. All those innocents going to work, and walking with their kids, eating ice cream and pizza and bitching about their TV shows never knowing and having no way to stop the end that was screaming up towards them.

GNAY GE PAAOX G NAPTA BIAH ASPT A BABALON OD IALPON T NALVAGE GNAY GE DRIX GNAY GE ZACAM GNAY GE IAIAL

"You harmed my brothers," Michael intoned, watching Zachariah's eyes show true fear. "You harmed me and creation. You have broken Father's commandments, betrayed your station, and revoked your claim to existence."

"Michael –"

Michael slammed his palm against the traitor's head, feeling the Seraph's grace burn under his touch, his screams loud enough to shake the walls around him but it was no matter. Traitors of heaven must be punished.

"Mike," Gabriel said, voice soft beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

A fleeting thought of Cas, his handprint burned onto his soul as it was lifted from hell, a mark forever pressed and sealed onto his flesh as an emblem of his failings.

Dean blinked, came back to himself as he looked down, the burned-out body of some poor shmuck who had probably thought he was blessed to have an angel come to him.

"He was right."

"Michael, you can't listen to what that lobotomized bastard –"

"I left. I did this to myself and everything suffered for it."

Gabriel was quiet for a moment, a first for his brother. In fact, how silent he had been was unnerving in and of itself. Gabe had always been movement, a flash of light across heaven, always in motion. Once, there had been a time where he was always laughing, playing with the choir, with Cas.

"Come on, can't fix heaven right now. Let's see if we have anything else to stop this massive stupidity."

~x~

Sam still found himself sending glances back at the demon who was patiently waiting. Crowley had shown up like some miracle, stunned to see both him and Cas. And to his surprise, the demon had gone and stood in the trap, handed over the bag, while bragging about how he still had tricks up his sleeve.

And then had been quiet. Like no quips or anything, just stood there, looking out the window, as if waiting for his impending demise. Sam figured that he felt death from Gabriel would be better than being found by Lucifer. He didn't blame the demon for that, but it unsettled him all the same.

After a couple of hours, he had given up trying to crack what was on those disks. Bobby had taken over but Sam held out little hope that the low-tech old man was going to get far himself.

"Any luck?" he asked.

"Too complex. Can't make heads or tails of this. Gonna have to wait for those yahoos to get back to get a better feel for it."

Crowley let out a long sigh and Sam resisted the urge to throw a book at him.

"Don't suppose you could actually help here?" he demanded.

"Sorry, big boy. Those things can't be undone by a demon. Probably made that way. Probably have protection against winged fiends too."

"Great," Sam said, rubbing his head. "Just great. All of that for nothing."

"Calm yourself, son," Bobby said. "We got everyone out of that fool headed plan, got what we went in for. Can't give in now cause it got a little hard."

"Sure. Yeah. Who do we pray to for a miracle?"

"Well, me, for starters," said a familiar voice.

Sam looked over, seeing Gabriel and Dean. His brother, who he hadn't seen since he had been dropped off, and he was already on his feet, trying not to run. Of course, Crowley had to ruin the moment.

"Holy hell," the demon whispered, backing up against the far end of the circle with his eyes on Dean. "Mother of all evil."

"Interesting," his brother said, taking in the situation. "Good spot for you. Well, better would be dead, but this is good too."

"You didn't fill me in on this part, chuckles," the demon said to Gabriel who just shrugged.

"Need to know."

"Heya, Sammy," Dean said, and Sam turned his attention back to his brother who looked worn. Dean clasped a hand on his shoulder. "How ya holding up?"

"Could be better. Have the disks, can't crack them. Some kind of enchantment on them. You?"

"The winged freak didn't have anything to give up other than Raphael is rampaging."

"What the hell was his plan?" Bobby asked. "He had to have known you were missing, even if heaven couldn't buy a clue."

Dean was silent and Sam felt his stomach bottomed out. Heaven had started this with no hope of winning but it wasn't just that. They didn't want to win. Just watch the world flame out. Something in his brother's eyes, grief for just a moment, and Sam felt like he would fall into it. Bottomless and endless and even if he didn't know Michael he knew Dean, he knew his brother would hold himself responsible for all of this.

He wanted to point out that Dean wasn't the only one up there with free will but saw a small head shake from Gabriel.

"Let me take a look at that, Bobby," Dean was saying, stepping away from him and towards the desk.

"So," Gabriel said, walking around the circle. "I feel this bizarre urge to say something about what went down."

Crowley fidgeted nervously, something unbecoming in a demon. "A glass of good Scotch and we'll call it even."

To Sam's surprise, Gabriel summoned it and passed it over, Crowley looking immensely grateful. The archangel came over to stand beside him as they watched Dean and Bobby. His brother was concentrating, then telling Bobby to try something again, which apparently wasn't working.

"Warded," Dean said, not looking up. "Complicated, Lucifer's handiwork."

"Just like the building," Sam said.

"Yep."

Sam wanted to ask how his brother was actually doing but it felt like the wrong time for that.

"Zachariah?" he asked Gabriel, in a low voice.

"Dead."

The way the archangel said it, flat, made Sam's stomach fall further. He decided he didn't want to know what happened to the smarmy bastard. Gabriel had summoned up something to eat, and his stomach grumbled, reminding him that he was one of the humans here. The archangel glanced at him, handed over the candy bar before making another one.

At least it tasted real. Sam made a mental note to ask later how they did that. Well, if there was a way to explain it without having his head explode.

"Got it," Bobby said. Sam smiled at the old man's excitement. "Know why Satan was all hot to do a hell encryption on this thing."

"Is it –"

"Everything," Dean answered grimly, taking over and flipping through whatever he saw on the screen. "Hot damn. Looks like we won't have to go after the handler after all."

Sam could feel the entire room waiting for his brother to fill them in and he could see the look on Dean's face. The one that said he was scheming. Dean always had that look when he was about to propose some batshit insane plan that shouldn't work but did and he smiled a little.

"Demon," Dean started before being interrupted.

"It's Crowley."

His brother rolled his eyes as he looked at them.

"Crowley," Dean said, voice lathered up with sarcasm. "You're in this deep. Like you've dug so deep you missed China and shot out into the solar system."

"Thanks for the update. You're point?"

"My point is that since you're in this shit above your eyeballs I'm willing to accept you'll keep helping without backstabbing."

"In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say."

Dean clapped his hands together and looked determined. Sam hadn't seen him look that revved up in a long ass time.

"Then do I got a plan for you."